PMDD: Explorers of the Darkness
by KristheKris
Summary: A repentant Mercenary makes the ultimate sacrifice, and now is lost in a land that is naive to unspeakable horrors as it is wondrous. Will the world of Pokemon be able to handle the pragmatic, cold brutality of an Adventurer who has faced terrors that never should be known? What adventures shall he face, in the Darkest of Mystery Dungeons? (Blood/Death warning)
1. Chapter 1-1

**Chapter 1-1**

 **Waking up in the Light**

Screams of power, of rage and defiance echoed across unholy ground as a tall man in armor, stalwart and incorruptible burned twisted mockeries of human form with holy light, radiantly shining from a scroll. A woman of battle called upon the pure light, and monsters were burned to ash and blood. An old soldier bellowed defiantly as he fell upon his horrible enemies, rallying the others to his side.

And there then was the raider with the bloodstained past, who hacked with his dagger, and let loose with a furious blast of fire and metal into the ranks of horrors.

But it was upon them, as they beat the darkness back. A twisted amalgamation of human torso upon a multi-legged mass not unlike a scorpion. There was little left indeed that could be called human anymore.

As the terrible, twisted thing reared back, and it threw forth its massive, jagged appendage aimed at the Sister of Light, he did not think, only moved.

And then all he knew was agony, beyond everything.

The screams and unholy sounds faded away as darkness consumed his vision.

It seemed like his eternal limbo was to be the darkness, filled with the un-ending pain and agonizing silence.

But, all of it was broken by the sound of a bell, not a church bell, but something smaller and more innocent.

As some of the pain faded, the raider mercifully passed out, unaware of the one who had saved him calling out to her companions.

To the pokemon of that frozen world, a human was a sign of their salvation.

* * *

A bolt of lighting pierced the air as a young Pikachu was curled up tighter in the hidden cave of Sharpedo Bluff. He covered his head with a large leaf as the storm truly began to rage outside, unlike any other that had happened before.

Unknown to everyone, a tragedy was occurring between the folds of space and time.

 _ **CRASH!**_

"Woah! Are…Are you OK?!"

A flash of light, as things began to destabilize.

"No!" A cry of desperation from a young voice. "Don't let go!"

An increase of the darkness.

"Just a little longer…Come on! Hang on!"

A new voice, older and rougher responds, "I can't…hold on… _dammit_!"

An explosion of light and screams of surprise.

And for one human, a short fall to a beach, in a new form, with many memories, both beautiful and horrifying, disappearing. But some can never be permanently erased.

Only muddled.

"Urrgh…" Briefly, the human turned pokemon gained partial consciousness.

"Where… Where am I?" He gripped the sand, trying to rise but…

"...I can't…drifting off…" He mercifully blacked out again.

* * *

Luke stood in front of the Explorer's Guild, more specifically, the gate used to identify pokemon. He was pacing, heart filled with fear and doubt about stepping on the grate that looked rather spooky to him. Not only was there an impenetrable darkness in there, but a pair of loud voices.

"No. I refused to be paralyzed by this any longer!" Luke grabbed onto the little resolve he had. "This is it. I have to steel my courage today."

And with that, he stepped onto the grate.

However, all that resolve slipped away almost as soon as he heard a voice call out, followed by a second almost immediately.

"Pokemon detected! Pokemon detected!"

"Whose footprint? Whose footprint?"

"The footprint is Pikachu's! The footprint is Pikachu's!"

"Waah!" Luke backed off quickly, his chest pounding. "That was too shocking!"

He exhaled, starting to calm down but his mind started to work again, mentally berating himself. He thought about what his mom would have done but the obvious answer was clear.

"Mom would be so ashamed of me…I can't work up the courage to go in after all..."

Luke took out the Relic Fragment he got when his dad took him along as a Pichu on a trip to a ruin back home. "I thought it would inspire me…" He put it away with a downtrodden sigh. "I just can't do it. I'm just a coward."

As he walked off, heading for the beach, he thought of Uncle Swampert."Kid, if you are ever feeling down, just go get with your friends. As long as you have a bond with someone, nothing is impossible."

"Easy for you to say. At least you didn't have to move away from all your friends." Luke muttered, kicking a rock.

But when he stepped onto the beach, everything negative just faded away when he saw it. One of the first sights he saw when he arrived a few years ago.

Bubbles, floating along in the air, like floating prisms in the sunset. The rainbows danced along as the gentle waves provided a soft background melody. It was the most soothing thing he had ever seen.

Luke sat down at the edge of the flowing and ebbing waves, just enjoying the view. That was interrupted when he heard a groan in the distance.

He looked down the beach, seeing an orange blob. Luke started to walk closer when he realized it was a Charmander. One that was in strange armor but passed out on the beach with its tail dangerously close to the water.

"Waaah!" Luke charged over, quickly picking up its tail.

"What happened?! Are you okay?" He asked, using one paw to hold up the tail while he used his free one to try and shake the weird pokemon awake.

The Charmander groaned louder, his eyes opening up under the hood. He stood up shakily, his tail slipping from the Pikachu's grip.

"Oh good, you don't seem to be hurt." Luke said, voice filled with relief. "You weren't moving and your tail almost got wet! You could have died."

The Charmander tilted his head and looked back at said tail, his surprise going unnoticed by Luke.

"Do you remember how you ended up unconscious out here? It's very hazardous for Charmanders." Luke frowned slightly when the fire type shook his head. "I'm Luke, it's nice to meet you. And who are you? I haven't seen anyone like you around here."

The Charmander put gloved hand to his head as one small fact clunked out. "I'm not from around here. I'm a human."

Luke looked shocked, his mind briefly thinking of his mom's stories before he responds. "But, you look like a normal Charmander… mostly…"

' _I'm wondering how it happened to me myself._ ' Thought the Charmander, his face darkening as he tried to recall anything other than his name and the face that he was human before.

"Anyways, can you tell me your name?" Luke asked, not really thinking it was a joke.

"Ah. My name is Konstantin." The Charmander responded, at least happy that he could remember that.

"Kon-stan-tin?" Luke shuddered, having a hard time saying it quickly. "Do you mind if I just call you Kon?"

"I do not mind." As long as the nickname was not Stanley. He did not know why, but that nickname enraged him.

"Well, at least you're not a bad pokemon or a corrupted one." Luke looked down. "Sorry I doubted you…"

Kon was about to respond when he noticed something glinting in the sand. He knelt down, much to the confusion of Luke, both not noticing the two hooligans approaching.

The human turned Charmander grabbed the shiny object, just as Luke was shoved into him with a yelp, their combined weight pulling the object free. It was a blunderbuss, Kon vaguely recognized before Luke turned around.

"Hey! What was that for?!" He asked, Kon looking up to see… a purple bat and a purple floating pile of puss.

"Heh-heh-heh! Can't figure it out?" The bat chuckled before somehow grabbing the Relic Fragment off the ground, which Kon only saw as a simple rock. "This is your's, isn't it? Well, we'll keep it!"

Luke gritted his teeth.

"Whoa-ho-ho! Not gonna make a move to get that back?" The floating purple sphere just smirked. "I didn't expect the kid of some big Rescue Team to be such a big coward!"

The sphere looked back to the bat. "Let's get outta here, Zubat."

"Yeah." The Zubat started flying into a nearby cave. "See you around, Poke Coward. Heh-heh-heh."

Kon just watch them leave, his grip tightening on the Blunderbuss. "That was my personal treasure… It's-it mean everything to me." Luke muttered, downtrodden. "If I lose it.."

"Then let's go." Kon simply said, his resolve firm.

Luke started, surprised that a complete stranger would help him. "I-Really? You'll really help me?!" Luke smiled, thinking he might actually have a friend now. "Thank you!"

Both of them rushed into the cave, but Kon hesitated for just a moment to rub his eyes. For just a moment, he thought he saw the shadows moving, like something indescribable was in them. That was enough to unnerve him as he followed the Pikachu into the dark cave.

* * *

A/N: So, I felt like this crossover needed to happen. Unfortunately, I am more familiar with PMD than Darkest Dungeon.

Thankfully, I have a friend helping me who is intimately familiar with Darkest Dungeon and provided his character as the main character. And trust me, more will be revealed about Kon in time. (And yes, is his the Charmander on the cover and I had that image commissioned for Zaravan from Spoodlebug on Pokefarm.)

And here he is, with his contribution to the A/N.

zaravan I am happy to take part in helping Kris write this, Light knows Darkest Dungeon fics, to say nothing of Crossovers, are lacking in both quality and quantity.


	2. Chapter 1-2

**1-2**

 **The First Dungeon**

Luke shuddered in the beachside cave. This had not been his first time in the cave, sometimes sitting at the entrance when it was raining. This time, something felt off right from the beginning. He couldn't exactly place it but it was unsettling none-the-less.

He looked to Kon but he couldn't really tell what the charmander was thinking due to his strange coverings. He also didn't understand why the human turned pokemon was carrying around that strange object. "Um-"

The pikachu was cut off when a shellos landed on him, looking around in a panic with a small rock landing on Kon's head. "Run! There's a Corrupted here!" It slivered off him in a panic, many more pokemon appearing out of the woodwork.

"So, I would assume that Corrupted are not normal." Konstantin dryly asked, hold out his hand to help the pikachu back to his feet.

"No… they're very different from other pokemon." Luke was trying to rub the shellos slime off him. "They're… more than feral, if that makes any sense. Feral pokemon can at least be knocked back to their senses if you're strong enough."

"Corrupted are too far gone. Their very bodies are warped and some think that causes their minds to just… break." Luke grabbed his stubby arms, shivering at the thought of it happening to him. "No one really knows where it came from but they always take refuge in Mystery Dungeons like this one."

"Mystery Dungeons?" The concept explained to Kon after his questioning glance made no sense to the charmander. What kind of area would just toss you out if you fainted? And why would it take money and whatever items you had? And why was it randomized every time?

As Kon was thinking about the weird nature of Mystery Dungeons, soft scuttling was heard, causing Luke to look up.

"Gah! Look out!" He grabbed Kon and dragged him back when a trio of kabuto landed on the ground.

"Leave! Leave!" One screeched.

"Our territory!"

"Intruders!"

Kon just cursed his inattentiveness, gripping his blunderbuss tighter.

"But, we're just-" Luke was interrupted by one of them scratching him across the chest, a thin line of blood vividly showing up against his yellow fur.

An animalistic growl came from Konstantin as he slipped out a dagger from his belt and charged the dome pokemon that attacked his pikachu companion. Slipping the knife under the shell, he stabbed the soft flesh with uppercut, lifting the poor kabuto up as blue blood slipped out onto the charmander's arm. The other two kabuto looked absolutely stunned at the brutality of the strange pokemon, along with Luke.

Kon pointed to the closest kabuto. "Move, dammit!" He shouted, snapping Luke out of it. The pikachu reflexively reacted by shooting a weak thundershock at it.

The kabuto writhed in pain until the shocking stopped.

"R-" The last kabuto was shaking, before it took off with its weakened friend. " _Run awaaaaaaaaaay_!"

Luke stared as the two living dome pokemon fled before looking to Kon as he pulled his dagger out of the dead kabuto. "W-why did you kill him?!" Luke exclaimed, horrified. "He was just a feral pokemon!"

Kon was silent for a second before he responded. "He attacked you. I just… reacted in a way I felt was right." Kon looked down at his blood stained arm. What chilled him the most was the fact the blood didn't feel foreign to him. "I thought…"

"I would have been fine!" Luke briefly thought about his mom, wondering if she had been like this as well. He'd have to ask her advice on what to do later. "Let's... we'll talk about this later. I need to get my Relic Fragment back." Luke muttered, starting to walk on ahead.

Kon followed him, sheathing his dagger, his mind storming with feelings and thoughts. Some feeling very contradictory.

The walk was silent enough that they could hear the next group of feral pokemon coming from a mile away.

Oddly enough, this group was composed of shellder.

"Okay, can you just scratch them?" Luke asked, his cheeks sparking.

"Yes." The charmander responded dully, clenching his hand.

"Good." Luke loosed another thunder shock, almost instantly knocking one out, much to the panic of the others.

Said panic only increased when Konstantin rushed right in, punching one of them with his armored fist hard enough to crack the shell.

"That wasn't a Scratch!" Luke yelled, cheeks sparking more as he approached a shellder.

Kon gave off a snort as he picked up the injured shellder and threw it into some water nearby. "I am wearing a glove and a gauntlet. I thought you meant to punch them!"

"You're a fire type, not a fighting type!"

"Of course I'm a fighting type! I can punch, shoot, and stab!"

"Really, I thought the flames on your tail meant that you could spit out flames! I guess I was wrong about the things all regular pokemon know!"

By this point, the shellder had stopped fighting and most were fleeing. The ones who didn't run just kinda hid while the two pokemon got face to face.

"I'm not a regular pokemon! I'm a human! I've never even heard of pokemon before this!"

"It's still not hard to get that flames equal fire type!"

"Well, why should I need to do fancy moves like you say? Nothing says I have to!"

"You are going to evolve into a flying type! You are going to have to learn to at least use Ember!"

"What is that supposed-"

The heated argument was cut off by a pair of screams from deeper in the cave.

Luke's blood ran cold as he remembered what the shellos fleeing had said. "That sounded like-! They must have encountered the Corrupted!" Luke took off for the depths of the cave. Seemingly ignoring the shadows that started to move with an eerie presence.

"Damnations! Slow down!" Kon took off after him, a part of him getting frustrated with the pikachu rushing ahead with no regard to his safety, and for what? A pair of thieves!

With a wary eye to the shadows, he followed the yellow sparking rodent as Luke plowed through any feral water pokemon in the way. The smart ones got out of the way, fast, and stayed out of the way when Kon made his way after.

Said charmander was cursing up a storm, wondering how Luke was so much faster. Sure, his armor was light but it was like the pikachu was… oh yeah. He was.

Luke stopped at the edge of the Pit, the deepest part of the Beach Cave. And at the bottom, his fear was realized with a gasp.

" _ **RAAAAAAGH!**_ " The enlarged shellos roared, looking at him. But the once small, even harmless creature that was not too unlike a sea slug was now twisted beyond nearly all recognition, it festered with many disgusting boils, and dragged itself along on inflamed suckers, no doubt causing agony.

Many horrid, blank eyes clouded with seething, blind hatred sprouted along its head, and as it wailed, a second bloody jawbone forced it's way out of it's gullet, ready to tear and shred.

Luke tore his eyes away from the Corrupted pokemon to see Zubat and Koffing in the back of the pit, bloody but alive, giving the shivering. He looked back to the shellos, just in time to throw himself beck and avoid being grabbed by the jawbone but with the unintended side effect of the creature being right on top of him. "AAAH!"

"Get away from Luke, you-" The cave was filled with sound for the briefest moment as round heated metal balls pierced the monster's flesh, causing it to reel back.

Luke loosed a thunder shock at close range before retreating back to Kon, who's Blunderbuss was smoking from the end. "Thanks, Kon."

Kon just nodded while the two looked on at the former shellos, the poor thing writhing in pain before looking back at them and giving off a roar. "I would assume, due to the massive difference from the ones earlier, that is a Corrupted One."

The Corrupted shellos tried to charge them but Kon reacted quicker, aiming quickly and shooting it in the eyes.

" _ **SKREEEEE**_ **EE!** " It backed off, just in time for a shout from Kon and Luke to charge forward, covering himself in electricity and tackling the monster back into the pit.

Luke jumped off, putting himself between the monster and the two downed pokemon. "Hey ugly!" Luke yelled out at the monster.

At the sound of Luke's voice, the monster turned towards him. A fatal mistake.

Kon reached the lip of the Pit, taking aim and firing into the abomination's head. At the same time, Luke shocked it mercilessly.

Luke stopped after a few seconds, panting as the creature stayed up, like it had somehow survived.

And then, it slumped to the ground, dead. The shadows started to return to normal as Luke fell backwards, relieved but also shaking.

Kon slid down into the Pit, stomping over to Zubat and snatching the Relic Fragment/Rock from him. He then placed it on Luke's heaving chest. "There. We got it back. Let's go."

"Just give me a minute." Luke was trying to get his breathing under control.

Kon grunted, just sitting down next to him.

And they just sat there, in complete silence for what felt like forever.

What they really didn't know at the time that they had just begun a bond that would drag them both to heights neither of them would have imagined. But for now, the pikachu and human turned charmander were just sitting in an uncomfortable silence.

A/N: Chapter Twoooooo~ And our first big Darkest Dungeon thing that has bled over.

Side note: I based the blood of kabuto on Horseshoe Crabs because I thought they'd be pretty similar. (Also, I edited chapter one.)

Zara, any thoughts?

Zaravan Konstantin's brutality has manifested, time will tell whether it shall be diminished.

Probably not, in all honesty.

Side Note: From now on, after each Mystery Dungeon Konstantin participates in, he will gain a random Quirk, which may affect his behavior. This will only apply to him, however. Stress will also affect him still, too much and it'll be a tossup to whether he will become Afflicted or Virtuous.

The random Quirk Konstantin gains after this is...

 **Hieromania** : Experiences religious visions and delusions.

Kris: We are doomed.


	3. Chapter 1-3

**Chapter 1-3**

 **End of the First Day**

Eventually, Luke got up, crawling out of the pit before holding out a paw to help Kon out.

Kon looked back at Zubat and Koffing as he was pulled out.

"Don't worry, they're still alive." Luke responded, knowing pretty much what he was thinking. He glanced around before going over to a shellos hole, looking in. "Ah, here we go."

Kon just looked on confused as the pikachu pulled out two blue berries that weren't exactly blueberries. Said confusion intensified as Luke left some gold coins in the hole before tossing the berries down in the pit near the two thieves.

He voiced his thoughts. "Why are you doing that?"

"Well, they're hurt." Luke gave a weak smile. "They stole from me but I can't really hate them."

Luke started walking off. "My mom once told me the best way to turn an enemy into a friend is to extend your hand."

Kon just had a contemplative look on what could be seen on his face as he started to follow.

Back in the pit, the two poison type pokemon carefully waited for the two others to get far enough away before getting up.

"Heh-heh heh." Zubat nervously laughed as he picked up the berry. "We sure got lucky, huh?"

"Yeah." Koffing confirmed before eating his own berry before looking to the rapidly decomposing corpse. "Zubat, we gotta tell the boss about 'em."

"I know, but that charmander was really…" Zubat shuddered. "Hope we don't run into him at night."

[hr]

"Aw, the krabby have all gone in." Luke noted out loud, silently mourning the fact that the bubbles have all been popped.

Kon momentarily winced, trying to get used to the light after being in a cave for what felt like an hour.

Luke turned around. "Kon, can I ask you a question?"

Kon just nodded in response.

"Can you remember anything before waking up on this beach beside your name? Like where you were born at or where you learned to fight?"

Kon opened his mouth to respond and stopped with a sudden horror. He desperately tried to remember anything beyond his name and a few facts.

Nothing.

Absolutely nothing. Like someone had come along with a giant eraser and cleaned his head out.

"No. I-I can't." And like that, he went from horror to anger.

"Well, there's a lot of pokemon out there, some we're really just discovering due to the efforts of Exploration Teams and Rescue Teams. Maybe one of them took your memories?" Luke suggested, not really seeing the charmander's face real well but guessing he was getting furious due to his tail flame having grown to half of the fire type's size.

"What I'm trying to say is, do you want to form an Exploration Team with me so we can find your memories?" Luke held up his paw.

Kon stared at the yellow furred paw, mind partially muddled by his anger. "Why? I thought you were horrified by what I did with that dome pokemon?"

"Kabuto." Luke filled in for him. "And yeah, I still am. But…I understand why you did it. You were trying to protect me and you just reacted like a human would have on instinct. And, those instincts did help save Koffing and Zubat and put that poor shellos out of his or her agony..."

Luke shuffled his feet. "Basically, I think we could be really effective partners!"

Kon had time to calm down during that talk and realize a few important facts. For one, Luke was the only person/pokemon he knew right now, other than the two thieves. For another, he had no idea where he was and where to go. Going off alone was tantamount to suicide so he really had no choice.

Kon grabbed Luke's paw and shook it. "I accept."

Luke practically lit up, thought Kon could feel tingly due to the sudden static coming off the pikachu. "Thank you!"

Luke let go and pointed north east. "Wigglytuff's Guild is up there. We got there first to become an apprentice Explorer Team. Let's go, to get your memories back." The pikachu jumped in the air, throwing a fist before taking off. In his haste, he forgot that Kon was still not as fast as him.

Cursing, the charmander started to follow, but took his own pace.

[hr]

"This is it, Wigglytuff's Exploration Guild." Luke's voice was filled with pride, mostly to mask his fear of stepping on the identification grate. "I've actually met Wigglytuff once before. Just... be patient with him."

"Is his head as big as this tent?" Kon had to ask, thinking about how the tent must have to look like the guild leader.

"No. He's not that much bigger than us." Luke looked back to the grate and gulped. 'Calm down. I need to be brave.'

Luke stepped onto the grate and tensed up as soon as the voices started.

"Pokemon detected! Pokemon detected!"

"Whose footprint? Whose footprint?"

"The footprint is Pikachu's! The footprint is Pikachu's!"

The pikachu felt like bolting but he could also feel Kon's eyes on him.

"... You may ENTER!" Luke jumped slightly at the last word being shouted louder than normal. "Someone's with you, so get that stranger to stand up THERE!"

Luke scampered off before looking to Kon. "Pretty sure they're talking about you, Kon."

Kon just rolled his eyes, unseen by even the legendary pokemon who watches over us all, as he stepped onto the grate.

"Pokemon detected! Pokemon detected!"

"Whose footprint? Whose footprint?"

"The footprint is...The footprint is...Um..."

"What's the matter?! Sentry! Sentry Diglett?! What's wrong?"

"Umm...Er...The footprint is...maybe charmander's! Maybe charmander's!"

"What?! MAYBE?!"

"It's not a footprint you normally see around here…" Diglett weakly defended. "And there's something odd about them…"

"UGH! That's pretty crummy!"

Kon facepalmed as the sentries kept talking.

"Are they really arguing?" Luke had to ask while the argument died down.

"...Sorry to make you WAIT." The two topside pokemon looked back to the grate. "It's true you don't SEE many charmander around here but you don't SEEM to be bad… Good enough! ENTER!"

As if on cue, the iron gate keeping them from entering slide down, spooking Luke. "Yikes!"

Luke shuddered before walking in, followed by Kon. Then Luke was stopped by the ladder going down. Luke started thinking of the best way get on the ladder, which went on two seconds longer than Kon had patience.

Kon simply pushed the electric rodent.

"Ah?" Then Luke fell with a scream that didn't last longer than a second before he his the floor.

Kon came down the normal way, to an irritated looking partner.

"Why'd you push me down?! I could have been hurt!"

"You took too long." Was the dry response before looking around at the different pokemon.

And he wasn't really impressed. There was a sunflower, a beaver thing, an acorn, two birds, a caterpillar, and a ladybug. It was diverse but…not really what someone would think an explorer would be.

Luke was just rubbing his head as the two walked deeper in the room and even though he was ill at Kon, the frustration was overcome by wonder. Briefly, he thought about if all the pokemon in were on exploration teams.

"Excuse me!" The two's thoughts were cut off by a brightly colored pokemon approaching from the ladder going even lower. "It was you two that just came in right?"

"Y-yes sir!" Luke exclaimed, Kon just nodding.

"I'm Chatot, right-hand pokemon to Guildmaster Wigglytuff!" He chirped, chest filling with pride. "Now shoo! We have no time for salespeople or silly surveys."

Kon really wanted to tie Chatot's beak shut.

Thankfully, Luke spoke up before Kon could speak something that would certainly get them kicked out. "No! That's not why we're here! We came to form an exploration team!"

This seemed to knock the air out of Chatot. "Really? And exploration team?"

Then the bird turned around to mutter negative things about how hard the training was and how many pokemon ran away from how vigorous the training was.

"We can still hear you." Kon's voice was as dry as a desert.

"My mom never told me the training was that bad…" Luke tilted his head, wondering if his mom lied to him. "Is it really that bad?"

"Gah!" Chatot turned back around, flailing his wings. "It's not true in the slightest! Our training program for exploration teams is easy as can be!"

Chatot took a second to calm down. "Well, well, well! I wish you had told me up front that you had wanted to be an exploration team! Hee-heeee!"

Kon's hand was twitching while Luke deadpanned. "He changed attitudes pretty quickly…"

Chatot spun around. "Ok! Let's get your team signed up right away. Follow me!" Then the bird hopped over to the ladder, Kon taking the middle.

Kon looked up when he was at the bottom, seeing Luke take his time coming down with his tail hanging there. Then Kon made a decision to make Luke come down faster. One he would swiftly regret.

He grabbed Luke's tail.

Approximately two seconds later, Kon was twitching on the ground from the electrical shock, Luke landing on him. "A-at least I-I had a s-semi-soft l-landing this t-time." Luke stuttered, seeming just as shocked as Kon.

Kon made a mental note to never pull Luke's tail ever again. The canned laughter of the nearby frog pokemon cemented the note in his mind.

Chatot had a wing to his face, muttering about how this was the third worst way someone learned not to pull an electric type's tail. Then the bird took out a red berry. "Do you need a Cheri Berry for your paralysis."

"No, I've walked off worse." Kon proceeded to shove Luke off him and shakily get up. "Like having my intestines torn out."

Kon just paused, ignoring the fact that Chatot didn't seem to believe him. He wondered why he said that but couldn't remember it. Only that he wasn't lying.

What had he done in the past to get his guts ripped out?

Luke looked at him worriedly before following Chatot, Kon following not far behind.

At the door, Chatot looked to them. "This is Guildmaster Wigglytuff's Office."

Then he took on a serious tone. "On no account… I repeat, on no account should you be discourteous to our Guildmaster."

Luke and Kon both nodded.

Chatot turned to the door. "Guildmaster! It's Chatot! I'm coming in!" The he pushed the door open and the three entered to see the Guildmaster facing away from them. He seemed to be messing with something.

"Guildmaster!" Chatot moved to his side. "I present two pokemon who wish to join our guild as apprentices."

The fairy type spun around, a massive smile on his face. "Hiya!"

Luke would later lie and say that he didn't jump in shock. "I'm Wigglytuff! I'm the Guildmaster of the guild! You want to form an exploration team?"

Both pokemon nodded, Luke mostly from shock and Kon from indescribable feelings, leaning more towards contempt.

"Then, let's go for it!" He cheered, handing them some papers with some parts to write in and a piece of charcoal. "First, we must register your exploration team's name!"

At this, Luke froze up. He had thought of cool names in the past, having imagined this day coming but the fact it was happening now made all the cool names drain away. All that was left was the name he made as a pichu while playing with some old friends. 'Pokepals.'

Honestly, the name sounded kinda dull now that he was older and he looked over desperately at Kon.

The charmander just let the word slip out, even though he didn't know where exactly it came from in his head. "Crusaders."

Luke practically jumped on the name as he finished the paperwork for him and Kon. "Yeah! We're going to be Team Crusaders!" Never mind the fact that Luke didn't know what the word meant.

"All settled, then!" Wigglytuff took the paperwork from them. "I'll register your team as Crusaders."

He filled out the rest, humming before… "YOOM...TAH!" He tossed them in the air, for Chatot to fly up and grab. Kon just raised an invisible eyebrow.

"Congratulations! From now on, you're and official exploration team!" Wiggytuff spun around, suddenly holding a large box, a layer of dust on it. "I present you both with this in commemoration."

He placed the box down, with Luke opening it. "Oh wow!"

Kon looked in from the other side and was less impressed. To him, it was just a map, a pair of badges, and a messenger bag.

"There's so much good stuff!" Luke took out one of the badges, holding it up.

"That's your Explorer Badge, used for official team identification and emergency teleportation of others." Wigglytuff explained before motioning to the bag. "Also, have a peek inside your bag."

Kon blinked and opened the bag to see a weird band and a dark blue half cape with a bow as the clasp. He still wondered why Luke was so excited over clothes, seeing the pikachu pull out the half cape with a gasp and flourish before slipping it on.

"Those two items are very special, as we give some to all our new apprentices." Chatot explained. "Though, the half-cape is something new we started importing from overseas."

"Thank you!" Luke's eyes were sparkling, attaching his badge to the center of the bow. Kon copied him and attached it to his fur scarf. "We'll do our best!"

"Yup! But you're only apprenticing right now." Wigglytuff reminded them. "So do your best...to train!"

"Yes sir!" Luke grabbed the bag and the map before turning to Kon. "Let's do our best, Kon!"

Kon just nodded back before Chatot led them off.

Wigglytuff waited for the door to close before turning around and starting to write a letter.

"Dear Rita, Your son just joined today and he loved the cape you got for him. I'm sure it will come in great use for him. And his friend is very unique, like you…"

[hr]

"Ahhh!" Luke laid down on a pile of hay, Chatot coming in with a blanket that resisted burning for Kon. "I can't believe we got our own room!"

"Make sure to relax today, things get busy tomorrow." Chatot chimed in. "So rise early and start living up to our code! So get to sleep early tonight!"

"Yes sir!" Luke cheered, Chatot hopping off.

[hr]

The sun had set and the moon was high, shining in through the window on the pokemon laying on the hay.

"Hey, Kon, you still awake?" Luke whispered, rolling over onto his stomach. Getting no response, Luke started talking again. "I think my heart is finally calming down from everything that happened yesterday. I just… I can't believe I'm walking in my mom's footsteps."

"Oh, you probably don't know. She's kinda like you, ya know. An amnesiac human turned into a pokemon." He explained, looking at the back of the curled up charmander. "I mean, she didn't join an exploration team but she did join a Rescue Team and she was just… I've heard the rumors from the other in Pokemon Square."

"She saved the world by tying a group of swablu together to go up to the stratosphere and force Rayquaza to destroy a meteor. She once swam three days just to defeat Kyogre and take a gem out of his stomach. She went to the core of the planet simply to punch Groudon in face to take on of his teeth. Though, that last one would explain that weird necklace she has."

Kon shifted suddenly, surprising Luke. "Kon?

Then he started to trash wildly. "KON!"

[hr]

Stone.

Stone and flesh.

Stone intertwined with flesh, pulsating and squirming. Eyes and mouths and eyes and mouths gaping and staring.

He felt fear as he fired into the ranks of Cultists, who kept rigid grins, ignoring all pain as they clasped their hands together, swaying as they gave endless, mindless praise to their dark god.

He felt agony as a man with a golden mask, that overflowed with bleeding flesh tore at him with claws that sprouted out of his arms, and it was all he could to to not scream. He flailed, he fired, he stabbed as he and his comrades in arms carved their way through the twisted, unholy areas, with towering statues of black obsidian and spiked gates pouring blood.

There, there! The altar! It radiated unholy energies as they came closer, and he poured the holy mixture onto the last altar and the world around him shook as a roar filled the air for it was the ire of the dark god at it saw them **AND IT WAS ANGRY**.

[hr]

Luke was desperately shaking Kon, even slapping him at one point. He just wasn't waking up. "Kon! You're having a nightmare!"

Luke made a split second decision and outright shocked Kon.

Kon's eyes shot open and Luke felt his dagger on his neck, a prickle of pain coming from where the cold blade was touching. And Konstantin was just staring at him, eyes only half focused.

"Kon." Luke whispered, holding his breath. "You were having a nightmare and wouldn't wake up. I had to shock you."

It was all tense for a second before the door to their room opened, Kon swiftly taking the dagger off Luke's neck. Chatot peeked in. "I heard screaming."

"It's fine. Kon was just having a nightmare." Luke explained quickly. "He's awake now."

Chatot nodded. "If the nightmares happen again, you should really go to Chimecho for something to let you sleep dreamlessly." Then the bird closed the door.

Luke sat down back on his pile of hay. "Kon, do you want to talk about your nightmare?"

Kon sat up, looking at his shaking claws. "I…it was very vivid. I could feel the claws and the pain." The charmander put a hand to one of the places where he felt had the pain like some phantom thing. And then, with a hesitant voice, he started to explain more and more about what had happened.

[hr]

A/N: Whelp. Things are moving along. Not only do we get a bit of background on Luke but Kon has his first nightmare about the past. Yaaaaaaay~!

Would have had Kon going into more detail but then I realized that we used a lot of words already for this chapter. Zara, your thoughts?

Zaravan

Compared to The Hamlet, the Guild is decidedly...

Less than impressive. Then again, Pokemon don't seem very keen on building solid stone foundations in which they may live.


	4. interlude 1 (SPOILERS!)

**Interlude 1**

 **The Leper and the Wonder**

 **WARNING! CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR PMD: EXPLORER GAMES! SKIP IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO BE SPOILED ON MAJOR CHARACTER BEATS AND OTHER SPOILERS! IF YOU WANT TO KNOW THE SPOILER, THEN GO PLAY ONE OF THE GAMES! ALSO, BECAUSE THEY ARE AWESOME! GO DO IT NOW!**

 **THIS IS YOUR LAST CHANCE TO SKIP!**

 **YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!**

It was beautiful. Colors unlike anything Baldwin had ever seen before danced on his body and around him like a hazy smoke. The rocks around him didn't give off as much of that colorful smoke as himself and his sleeping companions but it did not detract from the swirls it made in the air.

These colors were in everyone, he realized. The Leper stood and left the cave. He was not going far, just to the entrance, fueled by the wonder and curiosity. And through his mask, he saw the colors, spinning off every single blade of grass and night time pokemon. All of it was a stark contrast from the world he had died in and the world he had just left mere hours ago.

He hesitated before he reached up with a gloved paw to take off the ever present mask so he could feel the air.

 _And the rush!_ It was intoxicating as foreign and old sensations washed over his face.

The cool air caressed the bare skin like an old friend while it played with the black on blue fur that was left as a part of his new form. He had to sit down, the sensations overwhelming him. Even the sensation of pain was a new one, given that it came from his tail that he sat on wrong.

A tail that came with his new form when he woke up. A form that was similar to a jackal but was upright like a human and had colors most unnatural to anything from his home. He knew of no jackal that was blue, or had metal spikes emerging from its body.

He wondered for a moment if this was how all jackals from his world saw theirs or if this was just unique to the creature he had become, a lucario, that name Grovyle had supplied earlier.

"Baldwin? You okay?" The lucario swiftly placed his mask beck on before looking back to the grass type, Grovyle. The shock of being able to understand the pokemon had waned in the sight of those colors.

"I am fine. I was just enjoying these sights." Baldwin responded, shifting over so Grovyle could sit beside him.

"I understand." The grass type looked up at the numerous stars and the huge bright moon. To Grovyle, it was just as amazing as the sun set, colors he had never seen in the future due to the ever present clouds.

To Baldwin, it looked so pure and far from the bleak and desolate Hamlet. It was the brightest white when compared to the ever red moon, perpetually bathing the surrounding land in dark shadows from whence the worst of humanity and the Ancestor's own bottomless idiocy rose.

"This is what we are going to protect." Baldwin spoke, his voice betraying the emotions he was feeling. "The wonder of this world and the innocents who would gaze upon it."

And for a moment, the two had the same emotions in mind. Even though they had different reason for feeling that way, they were still the same.

Then, the former king stood. "Grovyle, you should go back in and sleep. We have work tomorrow."

Grovyle nodded in return, glancing in the cave. "You think she'll be fine going to that town alone? She's still getting used to the changes like you."

"She will be fine." Baldwin responded, walking in the cave. "She has fought those abominations. Crowds would as water to her now."

"I hope so. I just… I saw what she was about to do." Grovyle sat down next to the third pokemon in the room but also the smallest, rubbing her head. "If… if she had been hit instead of Konstantin…"

"I'm sure she would have been fine. She is like Konstantin and he is a stubborn man." The freakishly tall lucario sat down. "I have seen him go into situations that would drive even the hardiest of men insane. One attack would not kill him."

"Even now, I am sure he is either looking for us or going to the nearest Time Gear."

"Oh, he could be getting prepared to fight Dusknoir if he shows up." Grovyle pointed out.

Baldwin gave a hidden smirk. "Let's just hope he doesn't call Konstantin, 'Stanley' again. We won't be there to protect Dusknoir from facial maiming."

Grovyle gave a smile at that before the two started laughing again.

[hr]

Kon shot up from the hay pile, looking furious. And didn't know why he was so angry.

"Go back to bed, Kon." Luke tried to cover his head with hay, the light of Kon's tail having woken him up.

[hr]

A/N: Yup, short interlude. I really wanted to do this from Grovyle's perspective but then I decided it was better to do it from Baldwin's perspective instead because I realized, "Oh poop, he's a lucario and can most likely see aura now. Might as well show his reactions and have him talk/foreshadow/spoil with Grovyle."

And now, I pass the A/N to Zara, so he can gush about the Leper, his favorite class.

Zaravan: The Leper is the greatest class ever. Though many fans of DD often deride him for being a pure frontliner, the Leper is a solid Tank class that can dish out damage and take it.

Thematically, the Leper is my favorite due to his calm resolution, even in the face of his disease. He bears it with grace and dignity.

The Leper's name, Baldwin, is a reference to the Character's design inspiration, from Baldwin IV, the Leper King of Jerusalem.

Kris: Yup, so don't go thinking he's named after an actor.


	5. Chapter 1-4

**Chapter 1-4**

 **The First Mission**

It had been a looong night, full of Kon waking up due to nightmares and Luke having to shock him to wake him up.

Eventually, both of them had fallen dead asleep. For an hour before they were very rudely woken up.

 **"HEY! RISE AND SHINE!"**

The voice was so loud, Luke could feel his head pounding as his eyes snapped open. Of course, that could also be due to getting practically no sleep.

Luke could see Kon gripping some hay that was sticking out under the blanket, his tail ablaze in irritation and his body shaking with barely repressed rage.

"Ugh! Why are you both still ASLEEP! **WAKE! UP**! If you're late for our morning briefing, you'll be SORRY!" Then the loud pokemon neither pokemon had rolled over to look at continued. "Guildmaster Wigglytuff has got a BIG temper. If you make him lose it… I've got GOOSEBUMPS just thinking about it. I'm not about to get in trouble because you rookies were late. **SO GET IN GEAR!** "

Of course, Luke caught only about half of what was said, shakily getting up. "What did he say?"

"I'm going to kill someone. I'm going to kill someone. I am going to _KILL_ someone." Konstantin hissed, demonstrating how his lack of sleep drastically affected his mood.

"I don't think he said that. Something about a briefing." Luke's mind slowly connected the dots.

"...Gah! We gotta go, Kon!" Luke rushed over, trying to pick the armored charmander up.

One scuffle later and the two pokemon stumbled into the center room, many pokemon gathered there in front of Wigglytuff's room. All of them turned to look at the two pokemon who looked disheveled and exhausted. Kon was giving off a barely restrained air of rage, causing many of the pokemon there to worry that just one thing that would cut that string and make him murderous.

And then there was the loud mouth. "You're LATE, rookies!" Luke barely managed to restrain Kon, covering his mouth so many of the child-unfriendly words were muffled to obscurity.

Chatot hopped a bit, "Hush, Loudred! Your voice is ridiculously loud!"

Loudred just harrumph-ed, ignoring the death glare Kon and Luke were giving him.

"Since everyone is here, let us conduct our morning address." Chatot turned to the door. "Guildmaster~! The guild is in full attendance!"

The fairy type opened the door and walked out… and was snoring.

Kon could feel his contempt for this Light forsaken pokemon rising rapidly.

The other pokemon where just whispering about how amazing it was that Wigglytuff was doing stuff while fast asleep.

Chatot muttered something before turning to everyone. "Okay, Let's do our morning cheers! All together now!"

" _A ONE, A TWO...A ONE-TWO-THREE!_ " Kon covered his ears, along with Luke.

 _"ONE! DON'T SHIRK WORK!_

 _TWO! RUN AWAY AND PAY!_

 _THREE! SMILES GO FOR MILES!"_

"OK, everyone! Get to work!" Chatot cheered.

 _"HOORAY!"_ After this, everyone moved out, Wigglytuff even going back into his room and closing the door.

And Kon pushed Luke off him as Chatot approached them. "Would you two follow me? We have a simple first mission for you today, even for you two. After all, no reports of Corrupted pokemon in the area."

Chatot hopped over to the ladder, the two sleep deprived pokemon following him. Well, more like Luke dragging Kon along, who was resisting the call of work.

Luke managed to get the charmander to climb up the ladder before following himself.

Chatot was at the billboard covered in papers on the left side of the room. And he was already holding a paper for them, which Kon took.

And Luke snatched it from him before he could burn it on his tail. "This…a spoink's pearl? Ah...We'll do it." Luke responded, knowing he'd have to explain why this mission was important to Kon on the way over to Drenched Bluff.

"Ah, before you two go." Chatot handed them some money. "Go down to Spinda's Cafe at the crossroads and get something to wake you two up."

"Thank you, sir." Luke weakly smiled, trying to ignore Kon's glare in the back of his head.

After the two left the Guild…

"Why are we going after some pokemon's expensive item?" Kon had to ask, really only seeing a pearl as something to be sold.

"It's more than expensive to spoink. It's lifesaving. You see, they're born with them and use them as focus points to keep bouncing right. The shock of bouncing keeps their hearts moving. The longer he goes without his pearl, the greater chance that he could die." Luke explained, looking at Kon to see if he would comprehend.

"...How is this species still around?" Kon simply asked, only getting a shrug from Luke.

The two reached the crossroads and noticed the sign for Spinda Cafe… and the stairs leading down. "Well, this is encouraging." Kon dryly muttered, following down into- **THE DEPTHS OF DARKNESS!**

He couldn't see! Oh Light he couldn't see!

Where-? There, there! A beam of light! He could see it! A holy relic of The Light! It called to him! The Light called to him, he had to answer, it was safe there in the light! It was safe, safe, SAFE SAFE _SAFE SAFE_ _ **LIGHT!**_

"The Light calls me!" He screamed desperately in a religious fervor! And he rushed toward The Light.

And then he blacked out.

Kon felt his head pounding as he opened his eyes...and he was face to face with something bright blue and wearing lipstick.

"Wobbuffet!" The blue pokemon cried before hopping away.

"Kon!" Luke's face can into view now. "Are you alright?"

"No. Can I die now?"

Luke gave off a nervous laugh before offering a paw to help him up.

With a roll of his eyes, he grabbed the pikachu's paw and pulled himself.

"I got us some coffee." Luke walked over to a low table, the groggy and mentally beat down charmander following and sitting down next to him.

Kon grabbed one of the hot cups before noticing a potion bottle full of some slightly blue liquid next to it. "What is that?"

"Oh, it's a Shuckle Potion, though I've heard my mom call it something called Alcohol or something when she drinks it." Luke explained, sipping his coffee. "It dulls pain and stops dreams if you drink enough of it but it apparently causes a loss of coordination, according to my mom."

Kon pulled down his face scarf and sipped on the hot coffee, face scrunching up at the bitter taste. He looked to the bottle, and then to Luke, who seemed to be enjoying the drink. Then he grabbed the bottle, taking the cork out, and taking a quick swig of it.

His mouth burned as soon as the liquid touched it but the flavor almost blew him away with the sweetness with a slightly citrus-y aftertaste.

The former human was so tempted to drink the entire bottle but… Luke was giving him a stern look.

…

He took another big mouthful, just to enjoy the flavor before sticking the cork back in and swallowing. He placed the bottle in the bag Luke had with him. "Let's go."

"Yeah." Luke put his coffee on the table before leaving some coin for payment.

[hr]

Kon exhaled, looking at the Mystery Dungeon entrance. Moist rocks and a lot of moss. So much moss it might as well be grass.

"Okay, the mission says Spoink's pearl is at the depths. Let's just be careful." Luke responded, walking in. "After all, even though there are no reports of Corrupted Pokemon, we can't just walk in all handy dandy. There's still the feral pokemon to worry about."

"Ah!" Luke suddenly ran forward, grabbing a random apple on the floor and hugging it. "Oh sweet apple, may you nourish us in the trek to come!"

Kon tilted his head. "What?"

"Oh, well, my mom told me that just walking in a Mystery Dungeon will sap your energy, and so to take some food with you at all times, even if it's the husk of a Reviver Seed." Luke sheepishly explained as he put the apple in his bag.

The charmander just shook his head in disbelief. "Then why didn't you bring more?"

"Well, this is just a small dungeon. I've heard there's dungeons much larger than the ones around Treasure Town." Luke shrugged, starting to move on, casually zapping an anorith that tried to scratch him.

"Still, the more provisions, the better, even for small stuff." Kon argued, following the pikachu. He picked up another one of those bug rock pokemon when they tried to scratch him but only met the metal of armor.

"It's seven floors, two more than the beach cave." Luke pointed out while tackling a lileep. "Did you get hungry while we were in there?"

"...Yes…" Kon smoothly lied, tossing the now terrified feral anorith into a pool of water. It scampered away, sure live a happy life as long as it never ran into the armor charmander again.

"Liar~! Your stomach didn't start growling until this morning." Luke then tossed an apple over to Kon. "Just go ahead and eat now."

The charmander shook his head, pulling his scarf down to bite into the juicy-What? Where did everyone-? No, no! He was surrounded! "Heretics! Scum! Sacrilegious profligates!" He screamed, firing off his blunderbuss at the twisting, laughing figures and charging at them, swinging his dagger wildly.

"Die, heretics! The Light will strike you down! Be judged, be judged! In the name of the Light!" he wailed madly.

"Kon! Stop!" Luke grabbed him from behind. "You're hallucinating again!"

Kon's eyes and mind cleared in that moment, noting the damage and hurt pokemon all around them. Even his dagger was right over the eye of a horrified pink shellos.

He pulled his hand back, putting the dagger back. At this, all the pokemon fled, either screaming or yelling for the others to flee.

Luke slowly let the Charmander go, who slipped the smoking blunderbuss on his back.

"Well, that could have gone a lot worse." Luke shakily laughed. "At least, no one's dead."

Kon didn't feel like it was that much of a laughing matter, looking down at the apple, obviously smashed during his delusion. He pulled his scarf back up, covering his mouth again.

"Kon…" Luke placed a paw on his shoulder. "We should get going. If we get the pearl soon, we can get you looked at sooner or at least get you a nap."

Kon nodded, walking on ahead, with Luke following.

As they went down a few floors, the fights being easy due to the only pokemon coming out brandishing false bravado, when Luke spoke up again.

"So, when are you going to try and use Ember?" He asked, zapping a shellos that tried to jump on him.

"Why would I need to learn to do that? My blunderbuss, dagger, and fists are enough." Kon shot back.

"Well, there are pokemon types weak to fire, such as grass, ice, and steel types." Then Luke remembered something. "Oh yeah, you don't exactly know about the different types pokemon can have, do you?"

"No. What you have been saying has been very confusing."

"Okay. Well, I'll just go over a simple trio of types and their weaknesses." As the moved on, Luke explained about the different types of pokemon and their strengths and weaknesses. Near the end, Kon had to ask a certain question.

"Are you saying that Wigglytuff could easily defeat a giant dragon type simply because dragon type attacks wouldn't work on him?"

"Well, it's not really just because he's immune to the attacks but it's true. I've seen it happen." Luke gripped the bag a little tighter. "He saved me when I had been kidnapped by a large group of dragon pokemon."

He could feel Kon staring at him now.

"Eh, you don't want to hear the story from me. It's pretty boring and a little muddled." Luke gave a small smile. "If you really wanted to know the story, Guildmaster Wigglytuff might remember but I doubt it. I'm just one of many pokemon he's probably saved over the decades."

Kon looked forward, thinking about what Luke had said about the Guildmaster and putting it against what he had seen of the fairy type. It was all really muddling and conflicting.

"Ah!" Luke's cry broke though his thoughts, watching the electric type run forward. He started moving some mud aside before taking out a large pink pearl. "We found Spoink's Pearl! Now all we got to do is get out of here."

Kon nodded, Luke putting the pearl in the bag.

The two started to backtrack, ready to leave, get paid, and take a good long nap on the hay.

But…-A shadow, a shadow moved!

"Who's there!?" Konstantin hollered.

And it was the Light, blinding and all encompassing. He fell to his knees in its presence.

"W-Wait! Please!" He begged to a voice only he could hear. "Forgive me! I-I have given penance! Truly with all my heart-!"

The Light lashed out, and struck him. He fell back, screaming in fear.

"Please! I beg you! I am faithful, please!" He wailed, unable to comprehend the agony.

"I will give everything, I say, everything to praise you!" Konstantin sobbed.

"KON!" Luke screamed, zapping the charmander weakly to snap him out of it. It was really one of the worst times for Kon to get a hallucination. A shellos had slapped Luke in the face with mud, briefly blinding him while a anorith jumped on the fire type, scratching at Kon's face.

Luke managed to knocked the two pokemon out alone before grabbing his still distressed partner. He could see lines of blood on his face, the hood having been knocked off by the attacks.

"Snap out of it!" Luke zapped him again, grabbing an Oran Berry from the ground nearby. He crushed it over the fire type's face, the juice running over the cuts.

Kon's mouth opened and out came a loud hiss of pain.

Luke stopped, jumping back when a small ember came of Kon's mouth. Then, Kon's mouth snapped shut with a audible clack.

"Are you snapped out of it now?" Luke cautiously asked before the charmander suddenly moved. Luke found himself laying on his back, Kon sitting on top of him.

For a moment, his heart skipped a beat… and then Kon smashed a Pecha Berry into his face.

"Now we're even." Kon snapped his hood up before starting to walk away.

Luke blinked before he started laughing.

[hr]

Thankfully, Kon only had one more delusion as they were walking back to Treasure Town and it was mostly harmless, what with him suddenly climbing up a tree and starting to praise a very confused swablu.

After taking five minutes to pull him out, they had gotten back on the road. By the time the two got back, the sun was just starting to make its descent to the West.

As they walked up the steps, Kon stopped to grab at his stomach, a sudden pain blossoming there.

"Kon?" Luke turned around, concerned.

Kon stood for a few more seconds. "I'm fine." He started walking up the steps again, but missed the worried look that Luke gave him.

They got into the guild, Luke giving the pearl to Chatot, the bird pokemon complementing them before hopping off.

"Kon, are you sure you're okay?" The caped pikachu asked, waiting patiently.

"It's just a stomach pain." Kon lied, feeling a lot worse than he looked.

Luke was about to say something else when Chatot came back, Spoink in tow with a few items.

"Th-thank you!" The pig looking pokemon cried, bouncing evenly despite all the bruises on his body. "I couldn't focus at all and I was just hitting everything. You have my sincere thanks."

The psychic type bounced over and handed over the items and a large bag of coins.

"That's all for us?" Luke exclaimed, Kon not really getting why the tree bottles of suspicious liquid seemed so valuable. Also, Kon was trying not to throw up.

"Of course! It means nothing next to my pearl! Farewell!" Then Spoink left, making a large bounce to leave the guild's first floor.

"Wow, look at all that money, Kon!" Luke cheered. "We're-"

Kon fell to his knees and hands, one reaching up quickly to grab his scarf and snatch it down.

And then, he just disgorged the contents of his stomach, much to the surprised horror of Chatot and Luke.

Just before Kon passed out, he made a mental note that his vomit was really red.

A/N: Whelp. That escalated quickly.

Got nothing much else to add. Loudred's a jerk, Zara wrote the delirious scenes, and those anorith scratches gave Kon Spasm of the Entrails. Basically, horrifyingly painful stomach spasms and blood puke. How fun. Right Zara?

Zaravan : Indeed. Some mechanics from Darkest Dungeon are still affecting Konstantin. In this case, being able to contract random diseases.

And since we've gone through another Dungeon...

Yes, that's right, it's time for more Quirks!

This time the random Quirks are...

God Fearing has replaced Hieromania.

And he has contracted a second Quirk, this one's Positive, thankfully.

The new Negative Quirk is God Fearing: In Town, will only Pray for stress relief.

The new Positive Quirk is Stress Faster: Eats -100% less food when stress is 50 or greater.


	6. Chapter 1-5

**Chapter 1-5**

 **The Sickness**

Kon cracked his eyes open, seeing an unfamiliar ceiling. He noted his body felt lighter than normal before looking down…

" **WHO THE-** " Kon's outraged question about where his clothes and armor went was cut off by his dry throat and harsh coughing. A glass bottle filled with water was pushed to his lips and he drank the water greedily… before he noticed the sheet on him.

He threw the bottle aside, getting under the sheet and hissing.

"Mr Konstantin. I can assure you that you are not even in the top fifty of ugliest pokemon I have had to work on." A female voice spoke up, sounding tired and irritated. "So, come out so I can make sure the mixture I gave you is working properly."

Kon, in his irrational brain deprived of his hood, had a simple reply. "Only when I have my hood back!"

"It will be a while. Chansey took all of it out back to wash them." The voice got lower. "I know some pokemon have attachment to human clothes but sheesh…"

"Kon?" Luke's voice entered the room.

"He's under the sheet. Mr Konstantin will not come out unless I give him his hood back." The female voice grumbled.

"Um, let me try something, Miss Audino." Luke took off his half cape and approached the shaking sheet. "Kon, if I give you my cape to wear on your head, will you come out?"

There was a second of silence.

And then the charmander stuck out his hand from under the sheet. "I'll take it." His dry voice came out.

Luke handed it over before looking to where the smashed bottle was. "I'll get that cleaned up." Luke rushed out to go get something to clean it up with.

Audino shook her head before looked to the charmander who looked rather ridiculous with the half cape acting like a hood. "You explorers are all the same. Pushing off your sickness just so you can explore for just a little bit longer."

"You are not the first one to come in here puking blood but at least you have the decency to be interestingly difficult with what you've got. If it was just normal stomach issues, I'd just throw you out and recommend a Sitrus/Rawst Smoothie from Spinda. Thank the legends you didn't panic and just assume you were dying and just pass out instead."

At this, some part of Kon took offence and his mouth started talking before his conscious mind noticed. "I'll have you know I've killed monsters while I had caught the Black Plague! Open, oozing sores! Tumors! Fever! Vomiting! Did I whine about it? No! I kept moving and killed the cannibalistic monster that was haunting our woods outside... Uh... Outside... Nhgn..."

He grabbed his head before the pink and cream colored pokemon walked over, taking one of the swirly appendages from her ear and put it to his chest. "Ah, now you make more sense. You're one of them crazy pokemon from the northern isles who tried to stay."

Kon at least gave a confused look before the normal type pokemon continued.

"So who was it that made you stay on the murder islands? You parents? A sibling? A lover?"

"Employer. Got paid." The words slipped out.

"Heh, must be a really hopeful pokemon."

Kon didn't respond.

"OK, now, I don't know what caused that head pain but I have determined what is causing the blood puking. Hopefully, I will have something ready to stop it before you leave this afternoon." Audino stepped away as Luke came back in with a brush and a large leaf.

* * *

A little while later, Kon was trying to walk around without his stomach seizing up. Luke was staying near him, ready to grab him if he started to show signs.

There was a soft chuckle from nearby, causing both of them to look over.

It was a large blue and white pokemon with bunny ears… at least, to Kon.

"Oh, hello Missus Azumarill!" Luke waved as she walked over. "Are you here for a treatment?"

"Oh, yes, dear Luke." She looked to Kon. "Is this your partner?" She giggled. "He seems much more entertaining than Rita's partner."

Kon would have been offended if he knew who Rita was or her partner.

"Um, yes. His name is Kon-stan-tin."

"Oh, that seems a little long." Azumarill gasped. "Sir, may I call you Stan?"

"Anything but Stanley." Kon responded kurtly.

"Oh? Is there a story behind that?" The water type pokemon asked, looking eager for gossip.

"I stabbed the last man who called me Stanley." Luke tensed up at what Kon said.

"Ahhhh." Azumarill looked to Luke. "Your friend has a unique imagination."

Before Kon could get offended, three blue balls of varying size rushed in, two of them connected.

"Momma! Mister Kecleon gave us free apple today!" The tiny one spoke up.

"Yeah, we could bake an extra apple pie!" The bigger one cheered.

"Oh, that sounds just delicious!" Azumarill smiled at her children.

Kon's anger just melted at the voices of the children.

Then they looked to him. "Oh, this pokemon looks silly!" The little one laughed. "I'm Azurill!"

The other one started laughing a little as well. "I'm Marill. Why'd ya got a cape on your head?"

Luke broke in before Kon could even get a word out. "Because Kon's trying to seem mysterious and cool but he's mission what he normally wears."

Kon gave Luke a dirty look before the cries of the children broke through. "Wow!" "I wanna be cool like you, Mister Kon!" Azumarill was just laughing at all of this.

Then the questions started. About if they were Rescuers or Explorers, if they had found something really cool, if they had seen a Water Float, and about a million other questions.

Kon opened his mouth to respond but all that came out was a grunt of pain, grabbing his stomach.

The kids went quiet, Azurill moving forward. "Are you okay, Mister Kon?" He asked, his ear brushing Kon's arm."

"I'm fi-" Kon suddenly felt a haze go over him. ' _What?_ ' And then everything went black, and the void cried out.

 _"H-Help me!" He recognized the voice._

Suddenly, the void was gone and he was still standing there, only he could feel Luke's paw in his arm. "Kon?"

"I'm fine." Kon responded, starting to head for a exit outside. "Just…need fresh air."

He stumbled out, but could feel Luke watching him.

Seeing a small bench, he walked over and laid down on it. Finally, he took in his surroundings.

Huh. More tents in the semi distance, a weird yellow pokemon sitting under a tree, and the Guild in that direction. Neat.

Then, Kon started thinking internally. ' _What was that? It was Azurill screaming for help but he didn't scream it right then and there._ ' Kon grimaced, holding his head. ' _Was it just a hallucination?_ '

"Sir, are you okay?"

Kon snapped out of his thoughts at the male voice, looking up to see the weird yellow pokemon. Kon sat up, grimacing again, this time at his stomach. "I'm fine. Just stomach problems."

"Oh, well, I'm sure Audino will have you cured of that soon enough." The yellow pokemon smiled. "I am Drowzee. And you?"

"I'm Konstantin."

"It's nice to meet you, Konstantin." Drowzee smiled, before seeing the two kids rush out, laughing. "Ah, the innocence of youth."

Drowzee smirked a little. "Those kids actually lost an item recently but haven't told their mom. I actually saw it recently in a Mystery Dungeon and I'm going to help them find it."

"Good." Kon muttered, seeing the two pokemon roughhousing.

"We're going to leave soon, so care, Konstantin." Drowzee held out his hand, which Kon shook.

"Okay, kids!" Drowzee called out, getting up. "Let's head out! To Mount Bristle!"

Then, the haze came to Kon again. ' _Again?_ '

"Yes sir, Mister Drowzee!" Both the water types started to follow Drowzee.

And for Kon, the haze reached a climax and suddenly, he was in a rocky area. In front of him, he could see Drowzee at a hole. In the hole, Azurill was hiding.

 _"Kid, I swear, if you don't come out with that treasure, it will mean big trouble for you!" Drowzee angrily spat._

 _"H-Help me!" Azurill cried._

Just as suddenly, the vision ended and Kon's blood ran cold. The kids were already at the tents in the distance with Drowzee, but the happiness was a massive contrast to the vision he just had.

"Kon, you okay?" Luke approached the charmander, who looked shaken.

Kon turned to Luke and explained his vision. "Just- Go down to the Guild and see what you can find out. I don't trust that yellow f***!"

"What's wrong with being yellow?" Luke asked with a tilt of his head.

"Nothing!" Kon growled out, a touch of smoke coming out of his mouth. "Just do it!"

Luke looked skeptical for a second before saying, "Okay. I'll go to the Guild and check the Outlaw Board."

Kon exhaled as Luke ran off.

"What are you doing out here?!" Then tensed up when Audino came out. "You need to stay inside for now!"

"Well, I-"

Audino yanked him up and started dragging him inside, much to his frustration.

* * *

After trying a foul tasting concoction that Audino had made, he stared out the window of the building, watching for the tell-tale look of his partner.

Kon had seen Azumarill but didn't want to terrify her too much in case he was wrong. From what he had heard, she had something wrong with her lungs that kept filling up with liquid.

He also looked at the clothing line, where his was drying in the hot summer day. It was probably because of his amnesia but he couldn't remember when his clothes looked so clean.

"Gah, where is he?" Kon started to pace.

"KON!" His head snapped up, looking outside and seeing two figures approaching, the second one practically confirming his fears.

It was Luke and Marill, both looking fearful and panicked. Azurill and Drowzee were not with them.

Worst yet, Luke was holding a wanted poster with Drowzee's face on it.

Kon opened the window and crawled out.

"I-I lost track of Azurill and Drowzee and-" Marill was starting to devolve into blubbering crying.

Kon grabbed the spherical pokemon. "Calm down, Marill."

"We'll find your brother."

* * *

A/N

Whelp. Added and shuffled things. Next chapter is the end of the first Arc.

Also, hints of where the Corrupted Pokemon are coming from and ever so slight foreshadowing.

Zara, your thoughts?

Zaravan : Konstantin is going to come down on Drowzee hard. I'm talking 'Wrath of God' hard. He's definitely...

Not happy, to understate it.


	7. LftF (Omake)

By the Invocation of the Light, and Zaravan's call, I offer up This.

LIGHT FOR THE FORSAKEN

(By Ixenathier on Spacebattles, reposted with permission.)

The Hamlet was used to many things unusual and horrible. The odd rampaging horror, hope sapping darkness, blood sucking fiends, and a bandit raid or two. And that is not even covering the Darkness that dwelled deep in the earth.

This is not a story of one of those horrors. This is not a story of nameless darkness or even the deep places of the world.

This is of an event one moonless night when the borders between worlds grew thin. A night that the Abbot and his assistants lit every light they could in the chapel and prayed to the Light to drive back the Dark.

If any had the courage to venture out, they would have seen what could have passed as a child's doll peer into the open door of the chapel and, if they had been especially quiet, see the ragged thing listen.

If any would believe such a thing, they could even imagine the toy like thing hanging on to each word of hope and acceptance spoken in the name of the Light.

The next day, the toy was gone.

Days passed, and life went on in the Hamlet. There were the occasional report of things moving in the shadows at night, but nothing confirmed.

And if asked, the Abbot would smile softly and speak of the Light.

Then one night that the bloody moon shone with especial malice, VVulf and his men attacked.

One made it into the chapel devoid of defenders while they were occupied with the other would be raiders. Once in, he found the Abbot at his lectern preaching to what looked like an empty room.

Snarling the invader charged raising his weapon high to strike down the spiritual heart of the Hamlet, only to find his way barred by children's toys.

Disregarding this as madness, he continued down the center isle heedless of the Abbot's warnings trending toys beneath his boots.

Almost to his target his feet were ripped out from under him and the air filled with what sounded almost like the laughter of children as the tiny figures moved to encircle him.

Before darkness claimed him, the last thing he saw was the smile painted on a scrap of yellow cloth that made the doll in font of him, and the whip-like claws that lashed out from beneath it.

A/N: Just a funny little thing we thought of when talking about how the Hamlet would react to Ghost type pokemon. This was mentioned and Zara demanded that Ix make it.

Ix: Mimikyu says hi!

Zara: I am honored that Ixen has made this. I can only thank him.

And hope that others will follow in his stead.


	8. Chapter 1-6

**Chapter 1-6**

 **Saving Azurill**

Kon started pulling his clothes down, making sure Marill or no one else was looking before starting to slip it on. He only took off Luke's cape off when he had his hood ready to pop.

In less than a second, the cape was off and the hood was back up.

"Can I stop holding the sheet up now?" Luke asked, straining slightly. "I want to do something before we leave to save Azurill."

Kon rolled his eyes. "Yes." He grumbled, pulling his scarf over his mouth.

"Good." Luke quickly threw it on a tree stump before grabbing his half cape, putting it on. "We meet up at the crossroads."

"Okay." Kon watched as the pikachu took off, grabbing his own stomach as pain over took him.

"Um, are you okay, Mister Kon?" Marill asked, peeking around a corner.

"Yes." He started to walk down to the town, Marill following behind him.

Down there, he had to admit that not all the pokemon were stupid. While there were some tents up, a majority of the buildings were made of solid material. Not that he had the time to really inspect them, heading for the crossroads.

"Where did Drowzee take you two before you got separated from him?" Kon asked, looking towards the jagged mountain in the distance. The idea was already on his mind that the mountain was it.

"W-we went to Mount Bristle, but, I don't know which path they took on the mountain." Marill was on the verge of tears when Kon put a hand on his head.

"Listen. When we leave, I want you to go up the Guild and get the others there to go to Mount Bristle." Kon explained, as soothingly as he could. "You got it?"

Marill nodded, still crying. "Y-yeah."

But then he started crying harder. "I-I'm a horrible big brother!"

Kon gripped him a little harder. "Nonsense. When you found out he was missing, you immediately went to go get help. A horrible big brother wouldn't have even tried to help their little brother."

"Okay!" Luke ran up, carrying his bag. "Where are we going?"

"Mount Bristle!" Marill spoke up.

"Let's go then!" Kon took off, Luke running alongside him.

Marill watched for a few more seconds before running up the steps to Wigglytuff's Guild.

He had his own mission to do.

[hr]

Kon stared up at the mountain, gripping his Blunderbuss with purpose. Luke was beside him, bag at the ready.

"Let's go." Luke charged in, followed by Kon.

Luke jumped over a pretty confused looking geodude, Konstantine not even questioning how it would exist and running around it.

When a starly tried to peck Kon, the charmander reacted very brutally, slamming the bird to the ground with the butt of his Blunderbuss.

Most of the pokemon tried to stay out of Kon's way after that. Even when he did have to stop due to his stomach issues.

It was during those time that Luke started to pick up seeds and berries, waiting for Kon's pain to pass.

It felt like hours of running when Luke heard talking, very faint but it was ahead.

"They're up ahead." Luke spoke up.

Kon gave off an animalistic growl, rushing ahead of Luke, drawing his dagger.

And low and behold, it was just like his vision, Drowzee at the hole and in said hole, Azurill was hiding.

"Kid, I swear, if you don't come out with that treasure, it will mean big trouble for you!" Drowzee angrily spat.

"H-Help me!" Azurill cried.

Konstantin's rage hit a high point, the only thing saving Drowzee from death was Kon's loud growling. The yellow pokemon barely dodged, releasing a ring of psychic energy right into Konstantin's face.

Kon groaned, falling to the ground as exhaustion over took him. "You…" he growled out before his eyes drooped shut.

"That-" Drowzee gasped, looking at Kon's dagger. "That was close."

"Hold it!" Luke took an opportunity to catch his breath, shaking all over. "Hold it right there! We're Team Crusaders and we're here to stop you."

"Oh, what is a wet behind the ears rookie explorer like you going to do?" Drowzee asked, regaining his confidence since, to him, Luke just looked like a cowardly little pikachu, carried here by the much more competent seeming charmander on the ground. "I can see you shaking from here."

Luke decided to pull a page from Kon's book. "I'm shaking because I'm not used to climbing mountains, you yellow jerk." Well, it was a partial page. Azurill was still there, listening. "And I'm going to make sure you go to jail where you belong!"

"I'd like to see that!" And the battle began, with a quick hypnosis from Drowzee, that Luke dodged with ease. In return, Luke shocked Drowzee with a thunder wave, paralyzing him.

"Hehe, Good thing I prepared for something similar to this." Drowzee muttered, taking out some geo pebbles.

Luke recognized them in an instant, having been taught by her mom how to use them and how much damage they actually did. Luke decided to take out a few items of his own, some seeds.

The pikachu rushed forward, ignoring the rocks that bounced off his body. He put a seed in his mouth, chewing on it and feeling the charge building.

Drowzee tried to back up, feeling the paralysis trip him up. "Darn it!" He glanced up, right in time to see a fireball engulf him. "Gaaah!" It hurt, but not much as he forced his legs to work a liberal use of confusion.

"Kid, you can't win with these evasive tactics!" Drowzee called out. "You'll get tired eventually!"

"So?" Luke asked, having gotten a fair distance away. He was fingering a certain seed. "I don't have to beat you. I just got to stun you!"

The psychic type threw a confusion at the pikachu, feeling the paralysis wearing off. His eyes widened when his attack went right through. "A double team!"

Drowzee dodged to the right, seeing he got very lucky. Luke hissed as he missed Drowzee with his signature move, Volt Tackle. Drowzee reacted, hitting Luke with a confusion, blasting him across the 'battle arena.'

"Luke!" Azurill cried from the hole.

Kon twitched violently in his sleep.

"Why are you even doing this, kid?" Drowzee walked over to Luke, who was reaching for one of the spilled berries from his bag. "You aren't experienced enough to beat me." He reached over and kicked the berry from Luke's paw. "You aren't smart enough or tough enough. You can't beat me."

Luke's ear twitched before he laughed. "I know. I was just stalling." Luke replied with a smirk, as four magnemite and one magnezone floated in.

"What!" Drowzee exclaimed, not exactly expecting this from a kid.

"DROWZEE! YOU ARE UNDER ARREST FOR ROBBERY AND KIDNAPPING!" Magenzone spoke, floating towards the psychic type.

Drowzee panicked, before grabbing Luke by the neck, a confusion charged. "Get back, or I blow his head off.

All the electric pokemon stopped moving.

Before Chatot plowed into Drowzee from behind. "No one hurts the guild's apprentices!" He cried out, slamming Drowzee to the ground, knocking him out.

Luke grinned, getting up. "Thanks, Chatot."

"Well, I could do not do nothing while our newest apprentices fought a pokemon out of their league." Chatot puffed up, stepping off Drowzee. "Next time, I would rather you get permission, rather than ask for forgiveness." Then, he started talking with the police about Drowzee.

Luke quickly moved over to the hole. "Azurill, you can come out now." He said into the hole. "You can help me wake up Kon."

"O-okay." Azurill slowly came out… and then sprayed Kon in the face with a very weak water gun attack.

The armored charmander flailed about as he was shocked back to his sense. "Where is he!?" He howled. "I'll skin that child-napping Psychic alive!"

"Kon! Calm down! He didn't win against us and he's being arrested." Luke explained. "And don't do anything rash, Azurill is safe and without a scratch."

"Uh-huh. I'm fine, Mister Kon." Azurill nodded. "All because of you two!"

The little child started talking, rapid fire about how awesome Luke and Kon were. Going in very broad strokes and over exaggerating a lot of what the two did.

Kon had to smother the rage, not wanting to see this child get horrified after they just saved him.

Then, Kon looked back to see...a large floating metal egg on it's side.

"I WOULD LIKE TO THANK YOU TWO, ESPECIALLY YOU, LUKE." Kon immediately didn't like how this pokemon spoke, just grating on his hearing. "IT WAS SMART TO GET BIDOOF TO GET US UP HERE AND GET MARILL TO INFORM THE GUILD.

"No problem, Magnezone." Luke rubbed the back of his head, chewing on an oran berry. "I just didn't want Drowzee to get away. I actually thought of informing the guild last, otherwise, I would have gotten Bidoof to tell Wigglytuff."

"STILL, THAT IS VERY MUCH SOMETHING RITA WOULD HAVE DONE BACK WHEN SHE WAS FIRST STARTING OUT AS A RESCUER." Magnezone seemed proud about this. "TRULY, YOU ARE RITA'S SON."

"Yeah..." Luke looked down a bit, the motion not going unnoticed by Kon. "I'm sure she'd be proud if she was here."

"WELL, WOULD YOU LIKE A LIFT DOWN THE MOUNTAIN? I AM SURE ALL THREE OF YOU ARE TIRED." Magnezone offered.

Luke looked to Kon. Kon shook his head. "Do you want to go with Magnezone, Azurill?" Luke asked. "He'll keep you safe and get you down the mountain a lot faster than us."

"Okay. I really miss Marill and Momma!"

"WE WILL LEAVE THE REWARD FOR DROWZEE'S CAPTURE WITH CHATOT AT THE GUILD. THANK YOU FOR YOUR COOPERATION."

Then, Kon and Luke were left alone to walk down. And it was a little awkward. "Well, do you have anything to ask?" Luke asked, thinking he was going to ask who Rita was.

"Who's Bidoof?" Luke blinked at the question, before realizing that Kon never actually met the bucktooth pokemon.

"Oh, he's a fellow apprentice at the guild and was the fresh meat before us." Luke explained. "He's the brown pokemon with the buck teeth."

"Ah. That one." Kon commented lowly. "...Luke, who is Rita?"

Ah, there it was. "Rita's a Rescue Team Leader and one of the greats. As you know, she's also my mom and… she was a human at some point." Luke fidgeted with his cape. "So, yeah. I'm trying to live up to her image and be a great too. Get my name written down in the history books and be known as Luke."

"And... I probably wouldn't have taken that first step if it wasn't for you." Luke started to cry. "I'm such a coward, I have to be forced into the role of explorer. And even when I do something heroic, it's because I'm my mom's kid. Not gifted. Just down to my half human genetics apparently."

"I can't even get angry at mom. It's not her fault at all. It's the fame she's made by saving the world. And on some of my worst days, I used to think the only way to get out of her shadow was to to save the world as well, but obviously, I won't be able to do it. You're the human here."

Konstantin was silent for a long few moments as he trudged forth. Then, he spoke. "You won't always be in her shadow. We both have a long way to go. Plenty of time to put our lives on the line for the sake of the world. Besides, you should focus on what you are doing instead of what others think of your actions. You might be scared, yes. But to take hold of your fear and push onwards regardless is the mark of true courage. It shouldn't matter if others think that you saved a life that you're like your mother, what matters is that you. Saved. A. Life. Now, chin up soldier. We're going to have work to do when we get back."

He didn't say a word the rest of the trip down.

But, as they were heading back once they were off the mountain, Luke remembered something. "Oh yeah, how did you get those visions?"

Konstantin stopped, thinking about it. "I don't know. I really don't know."

[hr]

Back in Treasure Town, an oshawott was buying berries and apples from the Kecleon Brothers, grabbing the one TM they had for Energy Ball as well. She tilted her bright red newsboy cap up. "Thank you~!"

"If I must ask, you do not look like an explorer." One of them asked. "Who are you buying this all for?"

"Oh, just a few friends, one who's really sick and can't even leave bed." She replied. "But don't worry, it ain't contagious."

"Well, wish them our condolences, and please, take this on us." They dropped a Sitrus Berry in the bag.

"Well, I'm sure he'll be tickled pink by your kindness!" The oshawott smiled at them. "I will see y'all in a week or so."

"Good bye~!" "Have a safe trip!"

Mia sighed happily. This place just seemed so happy. There were pokemon walking around with smiled, an apparent sibling reunion between an azurill and marill.

When she reached the crossroads, she had to stop, seeing a flower she was pretty sure Baldwin would like to look at.

And so, she put her stuff down to dig it out of the ground, missing the pikachu and charmander who walked by.

"Done!" She picked up the clod of dirt and flower and placed it on top of her stuff, picking it all up and heading out.

It took her a few hours, in which the sun started to set, but she finally got back to the cave where Grovyle and Baldwin were sleeping.

Mia giggled, looking in and seeing Grovyle just splayed out and drooling. With a smirk, she grabbed a pecha berry and lobbed it at the grass type's face.

Grovyle popped awake, flailing in the hay before actually feeling the smooshed berry. Mia briefly thought about Konstantin, and how he first reacted when she did that. At least she didn't get a new facial scar...and dangit, she should of gotten that so she could over exaggerate how she got it to the locals!

Any thoughts facial disfigurement via angry Adventurer was interrupted via angry Groyvle to the body. "YELP!" Mia shouted as the two pokemon rolled outside in a ball of flailing limbs. "Staaaaaahp! No noogie! No noogie!"

The disfigured lucario snapped awake, before determining that the yelling was friendly and without malice. And so, he tried to go back to sleep.

The grass and water pokemon rolled into the tall grass near their cave, disturbing the bird pokemon that lived within, including some foul mouthed spearow.

Both of them were laying in the grass, laughing while looking up at the sky and the many colors that faded into another.

"Mia, don't you throw berries at me again." Grovyle grinned.

"I make no promises!" Mia announced, holding up her stubby limb. "You never know when Mia the Berry Monster will strike!"

Grovyle laughed at Mia before going quiet. "Thanks for getting the stuff."

"It was no problem." Mia grinned, holding out her fist. "We're partners, after all!"

"Yeah." Grovyle's fist bumped hers. "Until the bitter end."

 **END ARC 1**

A/N: So yeah, I had fun writing for Mia and Grovyle together as partners. I just can't wait to use her more and them together in a battle. Just… oh my god I wish I could spoil this stuff but I can't!

Zaravan : Really, Konstantin needs to start upgrading his gear if he wants to keep up.

Hm. I wonder if there's a blacksmith around?

Anyhow, I am happy to see this progressing so far.

Kris: And honestly, I love writing this story. I just can't wait to continue.


	9. Interlude 2

**Interlude 2**

 **A Dark Mystery**

Let us shift our perspective to another world for a few moments, to see what is transpiring in the land that Konstantin has come from.

Let us shift to a dark place, ever shrouded in the mistakes of the lord who once reigned. To a ruin manor atop a hill and the squalid hamlet that sits in the distance.

"This has never happened before." A gruff Man-At-Arms says as he addresses the Heir of this long suffering estate. "Not ever. Th' way certain monsters are seeming to stop existing all together doesn't bode well."

"This is a boon, Barristan!" A Crusader booms optimistically. "With news of the Collector of all beasts departing for some unknown reason, we can breathe a little easier!"

"The Collector is a pushover, Reynauld!" The Man-At-Arms admonishes, waving a gloved hand. "We all know that, from how often we've kicked his ethereal, bony ass back to the abyss!"

The Occultist silently steps forth, before speaking calmly.

"There is a great change coming forth, I do not know what it is, but we cannot afford to ignore it." He gently raises the skull with the lit candle a little higher.

"Hmph! If anyone would know, it would be you Abdul." Barristan huffs.

"Then we are in agreement." The Heir drones from his desk, lit by several candles scattered about. "We would do to form a plan for the future to prepare for this change. Now, you're dismissed."

With that, the Adventurers departed, and The Heir decided to gaze out the window. He figured taking out that bottle of whiskey in the bottom drawer, but thought better of it.

It is long after the sun sets, that The Heir finds himself awakened, having been moved to his bed. He gave a sigh, for that meant he had likely dozed off again. He hears something, outside his room.

He steps out of his bedroom, and slowly tapers toward his office, where he can hear the faintest vestiges of conversation taking place.

"The raider will be broken, for the blood he has spilt flows outwards from all orifices like a damned waterfall of corpses. His guilt will crush him. It has happened before, in this cycle they are all trapped in."

"Foolish human! He is not in a loop and he is in a world of hope! There is no cycle there like there is here! Konstantin needs to be broken before he can meet Baldwin. He needs to be seen as the rabid animal he truly is. We need to make his partner die. That is why we-"

He hadn't allowed anyone entrance unless asked. Ever.

Drawing out his Ancestral Pistol, and smashing open the door, he finds not a soul inside.

Nothing is out of place, save several missing Trinkets.

A few Reaver trinkets, a Martyr's seal...

Well, the Heir was well and truly pissed now. He was about to bellow out an alarm, but sensed a dark presence behind him.

Turning with his finger on the trigger, he was knocked back by some unknown force, slamming into a bookshelf, the pistol going off with a blast of light and sound!

And lo, he beheld some terrible shadow-like beast! A bright blue eye stared deeply into his own before a demented giggle echoed in his mind.

The Heir sneered in defiance as the wretched thing clasped at the sides of his face with it's smoky appendages. He had faced far worse horrors than this new threat.

Then he spat in it's face, or at least, where one would be.

"Your world of never-ending nightmares are so much fun." The shadow whispered in his mind. "Thank your Ancestor, if you get to see him again, for showing me the way here."

The Heir was released from the shadow's grip, the thing seeming to disappear.

The Houndmaster burst in, club held high and hound barking up a storm.

"Who's there!? Sir? What happened."

The Heir was silent. And slowly, he stood up. He took a deep, deep breath, and-

A scream of rage echoed throughout the Hamlet.

 _"AAANCEEESTOOOOR!"_

A/N: Zara did most of the work here but at you can tell, Darkrai's gone a bit off the rocker.

Zara, what do you think?

zaravan : Local man ruins everything.

Again.

On an inter-dimensional scale.


	10. Chapter 2-1

**Chapter 2-1**

 **The Trial/The Waterfall**

In the dead of night, two pokemon charged through a forest, or known to the locals, Treeshroud Forest. It was a natural Mystery Dungeon that everyone knew held an important relic. One that no one dared to touch in fear of dooming the world.

It was the Time Gear.

It was well known that there were connected to the Pokemon of Time, Dialga, but no one knew how or why. All they knew was that disturbing them would mess with time and they had many stories about how that usually went down.

However, the two pokemon approaching the unprotected relic knew more than everyone. They knew that time was already being disrupted. They knew what to do.

"This is it." The clothes lucario spoke up, a crash of lightning making his golden mask light up.

"The Time Gear. One of 5." The grovyle raised a hand to the Time Gear, feeling the warmth it gave out, before snatching it out of the air. And from that spot, a sphere of stopped time appeared, rain frozen within.

"Let's go, Baldwin." And the two took off, the inhabitants not knowing what had happened until the next morning…

[hr]

Konstantin downed the mixture quickly, he mentally groaned at the taste, antivenom was less bitter. Once he was finished, he chucked the bottle over his shoulder before getting up to leave.

Whispers echoed across the Cafe, many of the pokemon there apprentices of the Guild. All the whispers had one thing in common.

A Guild expedition. Something that apparently required a veteran Rescue Team to go along.

Of course, many of the pokemon were hoping that Rescue Team ACT would be coming along but others were suspecting other wise due to them being there last year.

And Kon didn't know about any Rescue Team so he honestly didn't care, more worried about his partner, who just entered the Cafe via tripping and rolling down the stairs.

"Goddamnit, Luke." Konstantin droned.

Luke shot up, gathering the papers he had been holding and running over to Kon's table. "I got us a lot of simple jobs! All in the same location, the place where we found Spoink's pearl! Should be a breeze!"

"I hope we're getting paid for this." Konstantin noted. "I want something built. I need it built. It is utterly, absolutely critical I have it built."

"Why?" Luke asked, puzzled. "What's so important-"

Konstantin slammed his armored hands on the table, silencing Luke.

"What's so important?" He hissed. "What's so important!? A Church, Luke! A Church to the Light! I must have a Church built so I may give proper prayer to The Light!"

The charmander scrabbles around in a pouch, before drawing out a crude blueprint of a stone Church, laying it on the table for Luke to see.

"And perhaps all you Pokemon here may also come to see The Light!" He hissed.

"Um, The Light?" Luke tilts his head, confusion and a sense of foreboding. Like Kon would go into a rant. "What exactly is The Light?"

"What is the Light?" Konstantin said, aghast. "What is the Light!? It guides us, it protects us, when we are on our knees, in our darkest hour, the Light is there, to grant you hope, safety, warmth."

He is shaking, in a fervor as he exhorts the virtues and kindness of The Light. sounding for all the world like a Preacher.

"When your wounds fell you, the Light mends. When your mind frays, the Light soothes. When the darkness comes forth, and seeks to consume you, the Light shall drive it back, for it is all that is good in the world!"

He leans close, and gently take Luke by the paw.

"And the Light will never. Ever. Abandon you."

"Well, that is certainly very interesting." Luke was trying desperately not to insult Kon. "But, it's going to take a lot more than Drowzee's bounty money to build something like this."

"We will get however much we need to get it built, Luke." Konstantin hissed. "That. Is. Final."

"Okay, okay. We should head out right away to do these missions and get the money then." Luke started to head for the exit but a large purple skunk bumped into Luke as it was leaving, causing him to drop all the papers.

"Watch it, runt!" It snarled, looking back briefly before going up the steps.

Kon growled. Only the voice of his partner stopped him from

"Don't, Kon." Luke spoke up, gathering the papers together.

Konstantin let out a huff, before turning to Luke. "Fine. Let's go."

[hr]

"Gaaaah, home sweet guild." Luke gasped out, covered in mud and carrying a bag of items they had to retrieve from various criminals.

Kon was similarly covered in mud and looking just as worn out, if not very angry. "Let's just get our rewards. Then we'll be one step closer to getting a Church to the Light built." The charmander said, wiping a bit of blood off of an armored fist from when he had socked a gengar in the face hard enough to knock out several teeth.

"I don't see why you didn't grab his teeth-" Luke froze, as going up the steps, they saw a certain duo at the top.

Zubat and Koffing, both holding some bags of coins.

"Ah!" And they had just noticed Kon and Luke. "So, what's a coward like you doing here, huh?" Koffing asked.

"Doing missions, just normal Explorer Team stuff." Luke rebuffed.

There was a touch of silence before both of the poison type pokemon started laughing at him.

"You! Mister 'scared of a goomy', on an Exploration Team?"

"What a laugh!"

The armored flame type said nothing, and just held up his dagger threateningly.

"See, now that charmander, he's more of an explorer than you."

Both of them moved around Team Crusaders. "See ya, around, Sissy Cape!"

"Yeah, see ya, Mister Coward!"

And they were gone.

Luke sighed and continued up the steps.

Inside...

"This is rather amazing work from you two! To have done eight missions in a single day!" Chatot chirped, getting all the rewards together.

"Here is your total reward for today, 5000 coins, three reviver seeds, and three gummis. Oh, and one mask courtesy of Linoone."

"Thank you, sir." Luke was a little off put by how quickly Kon had that mask on, especially since it was basically just five holes.

For whatever strange reason, the mask felt...

Familiar. He felt safer with it on.

He wouldn't be taking it off anytime soon.

Luke took out a yellow gummi, something that looked like a large jelly bean before taking a bit out of it. Gods, it was so good.

"Just what are you eating?" Konstantin questioned from behind his new, fairly intimidating mask.

Luke shuddered before answering. "It's a gummi. They're a sweet that can be made using filtered salt water."

"Oh." Said the masked charmander. "If you wanted candy, you could have just bought some, you know."

"They're special." Luke muttered childishly, stuffing the rest of the gummi in his mouth.

"Well, given your exemplary work, I can let you two do the trial to raise your Team Ranking from Normal to Bronze." Chatot spoke up, looking pleased.

"We'll do that." Konstantin says casually. "When and where?"

"Tomorrow and the Waterfall. Your objective is to discover the secrets of it." Chatot informed him, handing over a small but pretty thick bag. "You will need this, given your species. Do not take it off."

Kon just gave a confused look, one hidden by his mask.

Luke just hrmed. Soon, after dinner, the two pokemon were off to bed.

Despite the excitement of Luke, both pokemon were dead asleep.

And a shadow flowed into their room, approaching Kon's bag.

[hr]

The sun was beginning to shine as the next day came forth.

Bird pokemon were singing, plant pokemon were basking in the fresh new rays.

And Konstantin was silently glaring at Loudred from behind his mask, the same mask he had not taken off since he had acquired it.

While none could see his expression, even more so with the addition of the mask, the hatred could certainly be felt more than seen as it was directed at the armored charmander's target of ire.

Of course, the pokemon in there were sensitive to this, save for Loudred.

"I have an announcement to make." Chatot spoke up after the morning cheers. "All missions to Treeshroud Forest and the surrounding area have been canceled."

A wave of confusion went through the apprentices, one turned to horror at what Chatot said next.

"This is due to time stopping in Treeshroud Forest."

Luke himself froze up, his mind connecting the dots quickly. He had been to that Mystery Dungeon before with his parents. It was one of the weird exceptions to the rules of the dungeons, given it had been there since any pokemon could remember.

The worried discussion reached a crescendo with one sentence. "It would seem that someone has stolen the Time Gear from that location."

"Oh gods." Luke whispered, his body shaking as he glanced to Kon. Of course, he couldn't see the charmander's face at all due to that creepy mask. At least before, he could see a hint of the charmander's eyes.

"Calm down! Calm down!" Chatot flailed. "Now, Officer Magnezone has already started an investigation. All we can do now is report any suspicious characters to the officers."

"Does that INCLUDE Konstantin?" Loudred asked, much to the very nervous laughter of everyone else.

"Are you kidding me? Kon's not that suspicious!" Luke defended. "He was with me all day yesterday and last night!"

Before the argument could start in earnest, Chatot broke it up. "Konstantin has been here for a week and has had multiple people, including a Veteran Rescue Team, vouch for him! So accusing him of a crime he could not have committed will not be allowed!"

Loudred just muttered something and wandered off after they were allowed to leave.

"Ah yes, Team Crusaders." Chatot called them over. "I need your map to show you the location of the Waterfall."

Luke obliged, hoping that doing this Team Ranking Mission would lift Kon's spirits from "Wanting to murder Loudred" to "Wanting nothing to do with Loudred".

After getting the location, the two headed down to Treasure Town, mostly for supplies. Kon had to take a detour to get some medicine from Audino. She had some…colorful...threats for the charmander if he pushed himself too hard.

When Kon met back up with Luke, the pikachu looked happier than usual. The nervousness was still there, though. "Dude. I got great news from my parents!" Luke laughed. "I'm going to be a brother!"

"Congratulations." Kon responded, his voice not as gravely and dry as it normally was. "When are they due?"

"Dad said they should hatch in a week."

"Hatch?"

"Oh, yeah. You probably don't know. All pokemon hatch from eggs."

And Kon's mind just started racing, thinking about all the different pokemon he had met and eggs.

"Anyways, they're going to be coming over in a few days with my future siblings." Luke shook again. "Can I trust you not to spook by parents out too much?"

Kon just absentmindedly nodded, his mind preoccupied.

Then, halfway to the waterfall, Luke managed to verbally poke Kon enough that he broke of the train of thought about the very plant like Sunflora and eggs. That lead to Kon tackling Luke into a bush and smearing the cheri berries from said bush all over the pikachu's face. The fact that Luke didn't mind it seemed to make Kon to smile, just ever so slightly.

Not that anyone could tell with that mask on.

It was about an hour later and the two pokemon walked up a large rock to look at the raging waterfall in front of them. Even at the distance that they were at, Kon could feel the mist from it and taking Chatot's advice into account, covered the end of his tail with the bag.

"Well, you think there's a cave behind there?" Luke asked, slowly approaching the waterfall.

Kon nodded, getting closer as well, until it became too much and both of them were knocked back slightly.

"Gyeh." Luke shook his head. "Maybe there's a way around. Just going through the waterfall seems way too dangerous if there isn't a cave there."

Kon glanced down at the rocks below the waterfall before the hazy feeling started overcoming him again. ' _This again? What is it going to show me this time?_ '

 _A flash, and there was a figure in front of the waterfall, obscured by the darkness of night. All they could really tell was that the figure was bigger than them and was floating. The figure backed up a ways before rushing right into the waterfall._

 _Instead of dying, they rolled right into a cave on the other side of the rushing water. "Ah, this will be perfect for him~!" He heard the figure, now confirmed to be a female before she moved on._

The vision ended, making Kon gasp ever so slightly.

"Huh. Kon? What is iiiit?!" Luke was asking, before the charmander just picked the pikachu up, backing up before running right for the waterfall. "Kooooooon!"

And Konstantin rolled into the cave, Luke rolling away from him.

Luke glanced around, shaking himself much like a wet dog. "So…why couldn't you warn me before doing that?"

"Had a vision. It was easier this way." Was the simple response.

Luke stood up. "Well, at least we're in now." He looked at the darkness, foreboding a Mystery Dungeon. "Let's continue on and see if there's anything at the end."

Kon nodded, following Luke into the Mystery Dungeon.

[hr]

"I wish you would just use a pokemon move instead of punching all the pokemon we some across in here." Luke muttered, soaking wet from protecting Kon from all the water pokemon.

Kon just shrugged, punching a particularly mouthy surskit in the face. "I don't need those fancy moves."

"At least use smoke screen." Luke turned and shot forward, hitting an barbaroach with a quick attack.

"And what? Block our view too?" Kon shot back, several of the feral pokemon sensing the charmander's anger and backing off.

"No, make them more likely to get hit." Luke pointed out. "As long as we are smart with it."

Kon just rolled his eyes, punching the surskit again when it tried to attack.

The two kept arguing, angry but not coming to blows.

As they headed deeper in, Kon noted a pile of purple slime holding a gem. A rough gem but a gem nonetheless.

"Helloooooooo!" The slime waved at them, still holding the gem.

"Hi?" Luke waved back, even though he was five feet away. "Um, where did you get that gem?"

"Oooooooh, I got it from the preeeeeetty fancy rooooooom!" She responded, still smiling. "IIIIIIIt's got gems every wheeeeeeeeeere. No sableye eeeeeeeeeither."

Luke looked nervously between Kon, who was fuming at how the grimer talked, and the grimer herself, who just seemed good doing nothing.

"Oooooooh, are you twoooooo from the guildhooooouse?" She asked, perking up ever so slightly. "Caaaaaaan I come alooooooong? I really want toooooo see the outside woooooorld. It's probably got lots of Shiny stuuuuuuuff."

Luke looked at Kon, who was rubbing his blunderbuss and the grimer who seemed blissfully unaware of Kon's...issues and emotions.

"Sure you can." Luke nodded, hoping that Kon wouldn't shoot her in the head.

"Greeeeeat!" The grimer moved over and gave a very disgusting hug to both Kon and Luke… much to Kon's obvious ire.

"My name's Maaaaaaaannnnnaaaaaaaaa." She broke the hug, starting to move along.

Luke glanced at Kon again and it looked like the charmander wanted to murder the poison type.

"Well, it's nice for you to join us, Mana!" Luke cheered, moving on. "Let me just lay down a few rules about Kon."

Kon just snorted, like it was joke.

[hr]

The three pokemon finally reached the depths of the cave, Luke's eyes sparkling at all the gems littering the floor and ceiling. The feeling of air blowing past was ignored for the moment by the largest gem either Luke or Kon had ever seen in the back.

"Yeaaaaaah. That's the gem room alllllllright." Mana responded, followed the two pokemon over to the pink gem. "Reeeeeeeally fanccccccccy."

"I bet this is the last secret." Luke grabbed on to the gem and pulled on it to no avail. "Huh, it's really stuck."

Kon said nothing as he went over and helped to pull on the gem. And yeah, it wasn't moving.

Both pokemon backed off, Luke trying to think of something to do. As he approached for another go, however…

Hazey. ' _Seriously, again_?' Kon asked in his mind, feeling the haze reach a peek and then..

 _The floating figure approached the same gem they had been pulling on. "Hmmmm, maybe if I…"_

 _She pulled and wrenched on the gem before she pushed it in with a click._

 _The room rumbled, much to the figures confusion before looking to the side, the sound of rushing water filling the room._

 _And then the water hit, washing the figure out of the room with a scream._

Kon gasped back to the present, mouth open to tell Luke not to push the gem.

 _Click._

"What the heck?" Luke asked, backing away from the gem as the room started to rumble.

"Fuck!" Kon grabbed Luke by the cape and tried to run out of the room, hearing the water coming. He was almost out, Mana already out of the room, when the water slammed into him.

For a brief second, agony was everything he knew, water filling his mouth when he went to scream before blessed darkness and numbness fell over him.

Luke felt himself getting shot out of something, before landing in some hot water with a scream.

He cautiously opened his eyes, feeling something over his right eye. He reached up and pulled it off, seeing, much to his horror, Kon's bag.

He looked around, his mind noting that this was the hot spring, before he saw a mankey and primeape pulling Kon out of the water.

And his tail flame was out.

[hr]

It was a gentle wind that Kon felt first. It wasn't cold at all. Then, it was the grass.

"I see you are waking up here." A grandmotherly voice spoke up. "Not many do that but it is advantageous for everyone that you have."

Konstantin slowly stood, and as he did, realized he was no longer a lizard.

He took a deep breath, and flexed his hands, for the familiar feeling of his old body was comforting.

"Death." He said, voice raspy. "It feels so familiar. Like an old friend. I have perished from a bit of water. How unimpressive of me."

"Ah, but you are not completely dead yet." The voice got closer and when Kon turned around, it was… A large, rather majestic red and black creature. He would call it avian in appearance, but that doesn't seem terribly correct. Not quite.

"You will be brought back to life and you will come back again in due time, young one." She hummed. "But for now, enjoy the peace… here, and in the living world while it lasts."

The creature settled in the field, looking up at the sky.

"I fear I am not meant for peace, save for fleeting moments of respite." Konstantin pauses for a moment, before saying; "You are quite powerful, I presume. My nightmares are not just that, aren't they?" The question was redundant, for he already knew the answer himself.

"No." She confirmed. "They are from your past, in another world where I could not reach before. But now, due to those two's meddling… I can see the humans who die there. But I still cannot reach them before something… something wrong pulls them away." And with a wing, she motioned to another human in the distance, one who looked rather confused.

And just a second later, they completely vanished. "Whatever it is, it is coming ever closer to this world with every death from yours. And Father is not happy."

The hooded human shook in genuine fear as images came to him unbidden, forever burned into his mind. "Whatever that thing is, it is connected to those mutated cultists, the obelisks and ground of black stone intertwined with pulsating flesh, ridden with mouths and eyes..." He shudders, as he holds his hands over his masked face. "Flesh and eyes, flesh and eyes. If it is coming here..."

He is heaving as he falls to his knees, in the flowers stretching forever. "The dark god, the one who looked at us. I cannot even remember anything, and still I am in terror of it's mere existence."

Konstantin throws his hands over his ears, and his voice breaks. "We e-exist, because he a-allows it.. And w-we will end because it d-demands it! Oh, Light!"

Kon was suddenly engulfed in the death bird's wings, getting hugged to it's downy chest. It felt warm and comforting, like a mother's hug.

"Do not fear, young one. It is still far off and time to prepare is long." She crooned. "Remember, you humans were able to disable it, if only for a short while. It is not infallible. It is not forever. It can be stopped. More help is all that you humans need."

"But for now, you must focus on stopping it's agent. You must save my sibling, corrupted by proxy through a human." The death bird let Kon go after he suitably calmed down. She looked up. "Ah, our time is at an end."

The field was starting to get fuzzy and ill defined.

"Konstantin, remember this. You have been in this world longer than you can recall." She smiled as everything got much lighter. "And next time, please come to visit me after you have died a hero's death, young one."

…

Kon's eyes shot open, gasping for air before rolling over, coughing up water. He greedily took in air, to stop the burning in his lungs.

"Ah, he is awake." An older voice spoke up, causing Kon to look over. And it was a turtle. A turtle spitting out smoke from its shell.

"Kon!" Luke slammed into the charmander, hugging him with tears and snot running down his face. "I-I thought I had killed you!" Luke sobbed, hugging just a bit tighter. His whole body was shaking.

"It'll take... More than that... To kill me..." Konstantin said, water spilling through the mask as he hacked up the liquid out of his lungs. "I've... Walked off... Worse..."

Luke was sniffling and still sobbing, causing the revived charmander to sigh and rub the electric type's back.

After some time, Luke broke the hug, rubbing at his face to clean it.

Then, the turtle walked over, holding a letter before placing it on the ground so he could speak. "Well, children, it seems despite the scare, everything seems to have turned out alright. Please, take this to Guildmaster Wigglytuff once you two are ready to head back."

"Y-yes sir, mister Torkoal." Luke nodded, taking the letter and placing it in his bag.

"Oh yes. I have something for you, young charmander." Torkoal walked off and came back with his tail bag… only it had a new string on it.

Kon nodded, taking it and placing it on his belt. "Thank you."

After sitting there a while, enjoying the steam that came from the hot spring, the two left.

[hr]

A shadow watched the two leave, a growl most inhuman emanating from it before it punched a tree in rage. "That human yet lives! That water should have killed him and nothing should have brought him back!" Then, it started slashing and scratching the tree, fury evident.

Then, the shadow stopped and its posture changed, rather rapidly to one more defined. "It would be arrogant to assume that your siblings would not interfere." The voice of the Ancestor chided. "You should have known this, and the blame is on you. It appears that these indirect methods are not infallible as you thought them to be."

Darkrai, no, the man in Darkrai's skin turned to watch Luke and Konstantin as they left. "As always, their capacity to refute even death is always... Pleasant to behold. " He chortled, amused.

Then, the posture shifted again, to the pokemon in rage. "It can still work. I will watch his blood run my kingdom will come! The Leper will come after. One human is disruptive, two is disastrous but three… The girl will be last."

"Mister? Are you okay?" A young voice spoke up, Darkrai spinning in rage before he saw the species of what talking.

It was a pichu. They were rare on this continent but the less of them and their evolutions and his plan… Yes. This child. This child must disappear.

Then, Darkrai straightened up again, the Ancestor taking control once again before investigating the pichu.

"Uh, Mister?" The pichu backed up a little.

"This one is not worth it. Begone, child! Enjoy the innocence of sunlight while it lasts!" The Ancestor barked, starting to laugh at the tiny electric type ran.

Then, dualistic pokemon faded into the darkness, reappearing in his twisted laboratory back on Darkrai's island. None of the Rescue Teams that delved into his island never reached it or, in the case of the others, joined the laboratory as fodder for the fusions or as a fusion themselves.

Darkrai took back over, grabbing a flask from a table and throwing it to ground in rage. "Old human! We should have taken the child! Even a drop of its life would have made the fusion stronger!" He roared, shaking all over.

The Ancestor only chortled in response, as if he were amused by Darkrai's howling. "There was no need, once the fusion is... _Complete_ , it will quickly go out into the world, collecting and collecting, growing stronger with each one it takes."

He swept his, Darkrai's, hand over the table. "And soon, it shall take the Raider's friend, and it. Will. Break him." He lectured condescendingly, as if Darkrai were a child throwing a fit.

Darkrai wretched control back gripping the edge of the table, growling. Then he released his hold to look back at the cages in the room, hearing the clattering of bones. "Soon, my children. Soon."

[hr]

"Helloooooooo!" Mana waved, sitting in front of the guild house, looking content.

"AND WHERE THE HELL WERE YOU WHEN THE WATER CAME!" Kon was surprised at how strong Luke actually was. The pikachu was actually dragging him a little.

A/N

AHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAAHAAAAAAAAAAA!

Yep. That happened.

Zara?

Zaravan : The Ancestor has made his inevitable debut. And he is, of course, responsible for the horrors that are affecting the world. Again.

Nevertheless, Konstantin has earned a new Quirk from his brush with death.

Unyielding: +10% Death Blow Resist.


	11. Chapter 2-2

**Chapter 2-2**

 **Something Stinks**

Chatot tensed as he heard the telltale sounds of Konstantin coming down the ladder. "Welcome back, Team Crusa-" Chatot blinked in confusion, seeing Kon carrying a knocked out Luke. "What-"

"It is not important." Kon replied, reaching into Luke's back to take out the letter. "Cave behind the Waterfall, water trap leads to a hot spring, and Torkoal told us to give Guildmaster Wigglytuff this letter."

The flying type was floored. Not by them figuring out the secrets so easily but the fact that Kon had spoken so much to him. "Well, yes. You two have passed with flying colors!" He took the letter. "Please, wait right here while I give the letter to the Guildmaster." He then took the letter and went in, closing the door behind him.

Kon sighed, putting Luke down and nabbing an apple out of his bag, just a bit peckish, with dinner hours away.

...

Chatot hopped out of the room, trying to hold in the nervousness he felt, seeing the strange charmander counting out coins.

 _"Someone tried to kill Konstantin." Wigglytuff had a grim look on his face as he said that, still holding Toarkoal's letter._

 _"W-what?!" Chatot himself couldn't believe it. Yes, Konstantin was violent, rude, and overall an oddball of a pokemon, but he obviously had a good heart. He probably had made enemies but had done nothing to have someone make a death attempt._

 _Wigglytuff took a string out of the envelope, a string that Chatot realized came from the Water Resistant Bag he had given Kon yesterday afternoon. Only, it was cut in several different places, with only the slightest bit of hemp holding it together._

 _"His bag was tampered with. Someone tried to kill him with the trial."_

"C-congratulations! Your team is now Bronze Rank!" Chatot tried to inject as much cheer into his speech as possible. "In a few days, you two will be able to take more challenging missions and, most importantly, you will be on the list for future Guild Expeditions.

"Why a few days?" Konstantin asked, Chatot cursing the mask slightly for not being able to let him see even the slightest bit of the charmander's face.

 _"Chatot, we can't let our precious Apprentices get murdered. I will get help from someone who should be able to protect them." Wigglytuff looked pleased with himself, grabbing a piece of paper. "Please make sure that Team Crusaders doesn't go anywhere too dangerous or far from town."_

 _"B-But, how will I explain it to Konstantin?" Chatot exclaimed._

 _"I trust you to come up with a good excuse." Wigglytuff hummed. "He's not the kind to let a death threat go without retaliation."_

 _Chatot gulped._

"W-well, we have to get the papers to the Guild Headquarters and they have to adjust your paperwork over there according!" the flying type flapped his wings slightly.

"We'll still be able to take missions. Right?" Konstantin growled. "There's a Church that needs building, and we need coin to do so."

"A-a-actually, in order to keep things in order, you will be restricted to simple missions around Treasure Town and Beach Cave for now!" Chatot explained quickly.

The masked lizard looked like he was about to have an aneurysm. The fact that his mask hid his rage did not help at all, in fact, it only made him seem even more menacing.

"H-HOWEVER!" Chatot coughed. "However, you can team up with a higher ranked team to do better missions while splitting the reward with the other team! Y-yes! And with all the friendly teams in town, I am sure you will find a team to help you." Chatot chirped.

The Charmander took a deep, deep breath, before speaking. "Then I will find a team and... Convince them."

"Good! Good! Now off you go, to wait for dinner!" Chatot waited for Konstantin to leave with Luke before exhaling. "Such a scary pokemon…"

[hr]

The door to the duo's room smacked open as Konstantin barged in, dragging Luke with him. First moving over to one side of the room, he let the Pikachu slump into the hay, before closing the door.

He needed to think. And he wanted some quite to do that.

He lumbered over, and sat on his blanket.

So he had faced death. But why did he not feel mortal terror? If anything, it felt...

Stale. As if he had experienced it so many times it had become as dull as a rusty blade. He felt like he should be concerned about that, but he couldn't find himself able to care.

He turned his head toward the still knocked out Luke. At least he felt he could trust the yellow rat. He couldn't even think of abandoning him at this point.

And that odd, godlike being... One who shepherded the souls of the dead. And they both had seen that other Human who had up and disappeared. He had seemed familiar, but it infuriated him that he could not remember why.

Either way, that kind being had given him a mission, and he was more than willing to see it to its end.

With his thoughts settled, at least for now, he stood up and began to leave the room. He'd let Luke rest, he needed it.

But he had a Church to build. Time to, ah, sweet talk some other Teams into letting him join them.

'Threatening' was such a harsh word, after all.

[hr]

Skuntank, Koffing, and Zubat were standing in from of the regular mission board, staring at the one mission that was up there but only available to Bronze ranked teams and up.

Perfect Apple collecting. Five hundred coins per apple, though the price doubled if the larder specifically made for Perfect Apples. After all, no one wanted to see Guildmaster Wigglytuff go without his favorite food.

Which is what the team was expecting to get, having Zubat and Koffing sneak in to steal the Perfect Apples late last night.

"Chief, I got a bad feeling about this." Zubat muttered, looking rather sheepish.

"Well, I didn't see anything last night, Zubat!" Koffing responded, trying to soothe his comrade. "You probably got spooked by that Croagunk guy!"

"Well, he is almost as spooky as that charmander." Zubat shuddered. "But I swear it wasn't Croagunk."

"Bah!" Their leader scoffed, turning. "I saw that charmander the other day. He's probably just a displaced kid from the Northern Islands. All the pokemon from there are weird."

Zubat turned to say something but squeaked in fear instead.

"What is it now, Zubat?" Skuntank laughed. "See a human with a sword?"

The harsh sound of someone clearing his throat came from behind him.

As he turned in surprise, he saw the Charmander, armored, armed to the teeth, and sporting a rather intimidating mask.

"You're taking a mission." He droned. "Since you're Bronze rank, Chatot says I must go with a team so I may help them and split the rewards fairly."

He stomps up to the board, looking at the posted job. After a moment, he gives a huff, before tearing it off.

The lizard turns toward the three poison types, and he gives a thoughtful hum. "You'll do." Is all he says.

With that, he turns and begins leaving. "Let's go. We have packs to fill with apples."

"Wait just a moment!" Skuntank growled out, spitting off a horrible stench. "You can't just order us around!"

"Chief…" Koffing moaned in fear.

"Do you know who I am?"

"Chief!" Zubat pleaded.

"I'm destruction in pokemon form! I'm-"

"CHIEF!"

"WHAT?!" The poison type turned to his two teammates.

"He's the charmander that worked with that wimp!" Zubat explained with a whisper.

"Y-yeah, he saved our hides!" Koffing shuddered.

Kon sat there, rather patiently as the three whispered among themselves. Then, the leader turned around.

"Well, mister…"

"Konstantin."

"Konstantin. It seems we do actually owe you a debt. Going on this mission with you and your little partner tomorrow would be a pleasure, if only to remove the debt." Skuntank was going for something. "However, if you would like to transfer to our team after this, we would graciously accept you!"

An invisible eyebrow was raised.

"I mean, it must be hard to do anything with such a weak pokemon chaining you down, one who's all about following the rules and being nice to everyone."

Kon stayed quiet, actually thinking about what to say. Then, "I will think about it."

To Team Skull, they actually thought that the power hitter of Team Crusaders was actually interested in joining.

To Kon, it was his way of saying, "After our business is done, I will punch you in the face."

[hr]

Luke looked irritated at who Kon had gotten to go with them when he got up the next morning.

"Kon… a word?" Luke walked a little bit a way before whisper yelling, "WHY?! Why my bullies of all the teams you could have gotten!"

"Two of them do owe us their life." Kon pointed out.

"Yeah, but I would have rather gotten them to just leave me alone, not take us to gather Perfect Apples!" Luke peeked back at Team Skull. "I mean, we don't know if they'll actually take it seriously, even with you here!"

"They will not betray us." Kon dryly responded. "If they do, I will-"

"No maiming or killing!" Luke exclaimed. "I don't like them but I don't want them hurt or dead!"

Kon snorted. "Suffer them for one day, so I may build my Church."

"... Fine, but only if they play fair!" Luke looked back at the three poison types.

"Hurry up! We're burning daylight better spent gathering apples!" Skuntank spoke up.

"It is a deal." Kon grabbed Luke and spun him around. "We are ready."

"Good, let's go then!" Skuntank started walking off, Koffing and Zubat following.

Luke groaned a little before starting to follow them.

[hr]

"Mail call!" Pelipper yelled as she landed on the floating wooden house, just a mile off the coast of the southmost Northern Islands. She had a special perch there, since, this was where Rescue Teams who came to help out on the islands rested.

The window shutter popped up with a Psychic touch, allowing the mail carrier inside. "Thanks, Pelipper!" The alolan raichu floated over, placing down a plate of pancakes. "So, how are your kids?"

"Kids are doing fine, oldest recently left to join a Rescue Team." Pelipper responded, taking mail out. "Okay, got a letter for you from your son and one from his Guildmaster. Also, some mail for Swampert when he comes back around from visiting his boyfriend."

"Thanks, Pelipper!" The raichu took the letters, putting Swampert's mail in his In Box. Then she opened the one from her son.

"Aww~! He's gotten to Bronze Rank already." The raichu cooed, still reading the letter. "Konstantin sounds like a fun partner for Luke. I can't wait to meet him!"

Then, she placed the letter in her box with her son's name on it before opening the letter from Wigglytuff.

And her blood went cold at what the letter said.

After a few seconds, she slammed the letter down, surprising Pelipper. She pulled out two more sheets of paper and started writing.

"W-what's going on, Rita?" Pelipper, remembering the only time the former human having that look before was when the dragon incident happened.

"Someone tried to kill Luke's partner." Rita said, her voice filled with steel as she wrote. "Wigglytuff's worried that someone will try to kill him again or go after Luke directly."

"Wha-why would anyone do that?!" Pelipper asked, remembering meeting the adorable pikachu back when he was just a pichu.

"Might be his connection to me, might be because Konstantin is a former human like me, might be for an abstract reason. I honestly don't know and I have to go over there." Rita sealed up the first letter, signing Wigglytuff's name on it before starting on the second. "I have to be there for him. Being close to death is not fun at all."

"But, who's going to take your place?"

Rita smirked. "A guy who owes me big time." She finished the letter, signing a name on it after sealing it. She handed the letters over to the mail carrier pokemon. "One for Guildmaster Wigglytuff, one for Gengar of Team Meanies."

[hr]

"I'm starting to regret this deal, Chief." Zubat mumbled to Skuntank, all three poison types turning to look at the masked charmander, who was busy viciously headbutting a particularly daring weavile into unconsciousness. "He's scaring me more."

 _"Dude, all she wanted to do was have us do a survey!"_

"At least, he isn't aimed at us." Koffing muttered, Luke grabbing Kon from behind and dragging him away. "I really, really don't want to fight him."

 _"Seriously, we aren't even to Apple Forest and you've drawn blood!"_

Skuntank stayed quiet, contemplating their plans for knocking them out. It was looking worse and worse by the moment.

 _"Kon! Don't kick her! Don't give me that look! She's obviously a female!"_

Team Skull turned away, shuddering. "We...we're going to give them the payment."

 _"Don't beat up the hoppip! He didn't even see you do anything!"_

Skuntank was now seriously thinking about rejecting Kon's offer if he actually wanted to transfer to their group. He liked being in charge.

[hr]

The meowth was shaking like a leaf, not really understanding why he, of all the pokemon around, had been conscripted into an Exploration Team.

 _"You!" The scary charmander had yelled, stomping up to him. "You're going to help fund a noble cause to spread the faith, get in line!"_

 _"B-but.. I-I..."_

 _The charmander didn't seem to like that, and took what seemed to be some kind of weapon and pointed it right in his face, clicking back something on the side of it._

 _"Get. In. Line."_

And that was how he found himself following a crazy charmander, a pikachu, and three poison type pokemon into the woods, apparently to get some Perfect Apples for a reward.

"I'm sorry about Kon." Luke muttered to the meowth. "He's just… really motivated to build a building. Just say the word, and I'll remove you from the Guild Register when we get back."

"You run and I'll shoot you myself, coward!" Konstantin boomed, spinning to glare at the poor meowth through his scary mask.

Luke got in front of the cowering normal type. "Kon! Don't say that! Of course he's going to be scared! You just forced him onto the mission by threatening him!"

"He serves a greater purpose! In the name of the Light, he will contribute to it!"

"You are acting like a complete lunatic! Look past your religion and actually look at the pokemon you're trying to force to help!"

The young meowth was crying at this point, terrified of dying by the charmander's hands.

Konstantin gripped the sides of his head, visibly shaking. "I need this Church, oh sweet Saints, you don't realize how important it is... If I can't get it built, I-I..."

He lets his hands fall to his sides, and after a long moment, he turns back around and begins walking toward the woods.

"We'll talk about this later." He drones, his tone devoid of emotion.

"Okay." Luke sighed, feeling like he had diffused a very tense situation.

Then he saw the look that Team Skull was giving him. "What?"

All three of the poison type pokemon looked away, each of them commenting about how nice the sky/trees/ground/etc was.

Luke just gave them a confused look before helping the poor meowth up, telling him to stay right behind him.

[hr]

After a small incident where Skuntank and Kon almost started a forest fire with their tails, Kon had grumpily agreed to stay in the back, far from Skuntank's stench.

Of course, the trip after that hadn't taken much long, given most of the pokemon there were grass types and the three leading pokemon had a type advantage.

"We should be close to the ripest tree." Skuntank spoke up, having come here before to scout out the best places for Perfect Apples.

"Good. Then we can go on and build that church." Luke sighed, knowing that he'd have to talk to Kon soon about what he had done.

Said charmander was silent, smelling the air. It was thick with the Skuntank's stench but there was something else he knew intimately in the air.

Blood.

"W-What the heck?!" Skuntank suddenly spoke up.

Konstantin ran around the poison type and froze. There were several bloody starly feathers on the ground, along with egg shells and a burnt out campfire, littering the ground.

The meowth was backing up at the scene. "S-s-someone killed them!"

Luke turned his head to try and soothe the meowth before noticing something. "EVERYONE DOWN!" He yelled, tackling the normal type to the ground.

Kon grabbed Koffing and pulled him down while Skuntank jumped on top of Zubat, bullets whizzing by them.

"Well, damn!" A barking laugh echoed from the forest. "I thought we were going to have a good free lunch today!"

Then, out from the forest, came a strange pangoro, only it was wearing a green hood attached to a thick golden necklace. It was also wearing green and tan pants being held up by two black belts, one of the belts holding a strange four ended whip that had dried blood on it. It was holding a smoking flintlock pistol, it's paws caked in dried blood.

"I really want to see what that cat tastes like." Came another voice, as a sneasel and a krokorok walked out as well.

The sneasel was clad in green, shaggy clothes as well, overlaid with some kind of crude leather armor, he sneered maliciously as the two, wicked looking short swords he held glinted in the light, slick with blood.

The krokorok wordlessly growled, he too, was armed. Clad in green hooded clothes like the others, it looked shabbily reinforced with bits of rusted metal. A bandanna concealed the no doubt bloodthirsty grin on his maw, and he leveled a blunderbuss not unlike Konstantin's own at the group of Explorers.

"Eeek!" The meowth was freaking out at the mention of the three pokemon eating him.

"How could you!" Luke shot up, cheeks sparking. "How could you kill and eat innocent pokemon and their children!?"

"Aw, look. Th' rat thinks it's people." The krokorok laughed maliciously. "Sit still, little rat. I was the best at shooting 'em."

"Brigands!" Konstantin howled. "Scum! Killers!"

Quickly upholstering his own firearm, he levels it and pulls the trigger, mercilessly blasting the krokorok fusilier in the head.

"Ah, bitch!" The ground type grabbed at his head and with that, the battle started.

Luke charged right in, the meowth clinging to his back, hitting the pangoro bloodletter right in the center of mass with a Volt Tackle, followed closely Zubat flying up to the dark type's face and using supersonic.

Skuntank just shot a flamethrower at the other two, using Kon's tail rather rudely as a match.

Konstantin charged toward the cutthroat, dagger in hand. But the cruel sneasel was faster, and raked his swords across the charmander's breastplate. Howling in rage, the fire-type headbutted the dark type, and, without mercy, drove his dagger deep into the sneasel's neck.

The pangoro bloodletter let out a deep, bellowing laugh as he viciously whipped at closest poison types with his Cat o' nine tails, raking Skunktank and drawing blood.

Skuntank hissed in pain before noticed Koffing diggin through Kon's dropped bag. "Che!" He smirked before hitting the bloodletter in the face with poison gas.

The fusilier snarled, and fired off his load of buckshot with a blast of fire and sound, raking Luke and missing the meowth. Those two were climbing all over the pangoro, the two using moves every chance they got.

Before the fusilier could get his aim back, Zubat slammed into him, biting his arm. "You little shite!" He tried to rip the bat off, partially succeeding until Koffing slammed into him.

"Whoa-ho-ho!" Koffing laughed before hitting the krokorok right in the face with a sludge attack.

The krokorok was starting to concede that maybe they should have stuck to eating the birds and their eggs.

The sneasel was writhing beneath Konstantin as he gurgled, drowning in his own blood. With several more vicious stabs to the neck as the charmander pinned him down, he finally stopped moving.

The pangoro bloodletter howled in rage, and was able to get hold of Luke, and threw him away, before turning his wrath toward the meowth, raising his blood covered whip.

Luke hit the tree before falling to the ground, motionless… where Kon saw the entire thing happen.

Reacting on pure instinct, the normal type jumped off just as Skuntank slammed the pangoro right in the face with a sucker punch.

The fusilier screamed in pain, and fired off another wild blast of buckshot as he writhed about, blinded.

Zubat started draining the kororok's blood while Koffing attempted to keep the ground type down. As soon as the ground type passed out from blood loss, the two got off him.

"Blech!" Zubat started coughing up the blood. "Tastes like raw sewage!"

The bloodletter grabbed Skuntank when he bit down, throwing the poison type to the ground. He took out his pistol, pointing it right at the downed pokemon's head, laughing. Said laugh turned into a scream of pain, Kon stabbing the dark type pokemon in the back with his dagger.

Another howl of rage left the charmander's throat as he clambered up further, and repeatedly drove his dagger into the back of the pangoro's neck.

As the bloodletter reached for the charmander, Sunktank got up and tackled the pangoro.

It fell, Kon still stabbing it like a pokemon possessed, moving to start stabbing it in the face. He was still roaring when a small voice broke through the hate filled haze.

"Kon...stop…"

Kon's dagger froze right over the dead pokemon's face, his head slowly turning to see Luke getting up. He was wobbly on his feet and he looked dizzy, but he was alive.

He dropped the dagger before running right over to the pikachu and hugging him, not even caring if the electric type winced in pain.

"I'm fine. Might have a bruise though." Luke smiled, hugging the blood soaked charmander back. "It was just a tree."

"Um… is it safe to come out now?" The meowth asked timidly, hiding behind a tree.

Luke gave a nervous laugh at the meowth as Kon broke the head. "Yes, it it."

The meowth slowly came out, avoiding looking at the dead bodies, focusing more on Skuntank eating some oran berries.

"Saladin!" The armored charmander says, as he begins collecting the fallen Brigands' weapons and gunpowder. "You have to bring the Guild here! They must see this! If there are more of them, Treasure Town could be in grave danger! I will stand guard here."

"M-me?" The meowth, now christened Saladin, pointed to himself.

"Yes!" Kon growled. "Now go!"

"Y-yes sir!" Saladin scurried off.

"Koffing, Zubat, follow him and make sure he stays safe!" Skuntank barked.

"Yes, Chief!" The two poison types shot off, following the meowth.

Luke was tying up the remaining Krokorok, making sure he wouldn't die from blood loss as well.

There was a tense silence in the clearing, only broken by the movement of Kon as he deftly grabbed anything of value off the corpses.

"We're even now, okay?" Skuntank suddenly spoke up, confusing Luke for a second before the skunk pokemon continued. "We saved your lives just like you two saved Koffing and Zubat."

"Then the debt is repaid. Besides, we still have a reward to split." Huffed Konstantin, as he handed Luke the bloodletter's pistol.

"Here, Luke. I'll teach you how to use this later." Then the charmander went to gather the rest of the weapons together.

"O-Okay…" The pikachu looked at the pistol, the weapon just feeling weird in his paws.

Soon, they were all sitting down, waiting for the Guild and Officers to show up.

A/N

Ahahahahahahaha, look at those rails we fell off of.

Anyways, Next chapter is going to be a bit of down time for Team Crusaders, mostly dealing with the aftermath of the events here.

Nightmares abound for Team Skull. No last minute theft from them.

Zara?

Zaravan : Brigands have run of these lanes, keep to the side paths, the Apple Tree is just up ahead!

In all seriousness, the Brigands' appearance is foreboding. Where there's three, there are doubtless many, many more.

Left unchecked, any town in the Region is at risk of being sacked and burned.


	12. Chapter 2-3

**Chapter 2-3**

 **Cooling Down**

Luke yawned as he walked out of the police building, a brooding Kon following him. They'd been in there for the rest of the day and it was already nighttime. Only the barest sliver of the moon and Kon's tail lit their way. "Well, that mission was kind of a failure, given we weren't actually able to get paid for our apples."

"No bounty either." Luke could feel the frustration leaking through Kon's voice. "And bandits are in the woods."

Luke shuddered yet again. "Yeah… at least the officers are calling in extra help from the other continents."

Then he looked to the blood soaked Kon, most of the blood already dried. "And we got to rinse you off… again…And wash your clothes..."

Luke groaned and took off his cape, knowing what would be happening

"I'm not taking my clothes off." The masked charmander droned.

"Would you do it in the privacy of the Guild Room after we rinse you off?" The tired pikachu asked. "Keeping blood on you is not healthy…at all."

Konstantin was quiet for a moment.

"Fine." He acquiesced.

"Good. Let's head down to the beach then before we go back."

[hr]

Kon walked up to the Guild, clothes dripping wet while Luke followed, also dripping wet. "You didn't really have to push me in." The pikachu muttered as they entered, heading down the ladders.

"If I had to get wet, so did you." Konstantin muttered spitefully.

While the two were talking, they really didn't notice the two new pokemon coming up to the guild. "Ah, seems like yesterday we were last here, huh, Swampert?"

"Yeah. I wonder if Luke's in bed already." The water/ground type wondered.

Meanwhile, Luke and Kon had finally entered their room, Luke tossing his cape to Kon. "Go ahead and take off the stuff so it can dry overnight. Shouldn't really be getting any more visitor tonight."

The charmander groaned, though begrudgingly started to remove his armor. He made no effort to remove his mask or hood, however. While he was at it, he threw the pile of Brigand weapons in a corner of the room.

"Still don't know why you kept those…" Luke muttered, laying down on his pile of hay.

"Suck it up, I'm training you to use that pistol tomorrow." Konstantin said in a tone that brokered no argument. He was halfway done with removing his armor.

Luke rolled his eyes, curling up in the hay.

…

"HELLO, WIGGLYTUFF!" Rita yelled, kicking open the doors to the Guildmaster's room despite Chatot's protests.

"Hello, friends!" Wigglytuff cheered, placing a green orb back in it's chest. "It's good to see you two again!"

Chatot looked between the odd goggled alolan raichu and Wigglytuff, a confused look on the avian's face.

Rita floated in, Swampert right behind her. "Let's talk business before I go see my son and his adorable partner!"

"Right." Wigglytuff turned to Chatot. "Can you leave us for now?"

"Ah, yes sir!" Chatot left the room in a hurry, closing the doors behind him.

And with that, the temperature in the room dropped five degrees.

"Something else happened today, didn't it?" Swampert asked, cracking his knuckles. "We saw all the magnemite officers out."

"Yes."Wigglytuff motioned to a stack of papers on a small table. "The Team Skull and Team Crusaders combination encountered a group of what Konstantin describes as in his report, 'merciless and murderous brigands'."

"Ah." Rita had a simple look on her face as she took some of the papers and started reading them.

 _'Teams Crusaders and Skull encountered three Brigands in the woods while en route to a mission. Two were killed in the skirmish, the last was captured. Their cruel grins and sadistic mannerisms suggest complete lack of mercy, empathy, or basic morality. The enemy attacked with lethal intent from the outset. Suggest placing the Guild and all towns on maximum alert. There are likely many, many more Brigands roving about. As of now, all towns in the region are at risk of being sacked and burned, their inhabitants butchered._

 _End report._

 _-Konstantin'_

"Ah, one survivor from the brigands." Rita frowned.

Swampert looked over Rita's shoulder. "When do you want me to go interrogate him, Rita?"

"Tomorrow." Rita flipped to another sheet, seeing the reporting magnemite's response. "He should be awake then."

"Good." Swampert clapped his fist. "Then we'll figure out where their leader is and stop it before anything worse can happen."

"Of course, this might extend our vacation by a week or two since the guild can't exactly leave with these thugs out there." Rita muttered.

"Right. Until we stop these Brigands, the trip to Fogbound Lake is postponed." Wigglytuff responded. "But with you two on the job, they'll be stopped in no time!"

"You got that right!" Rita cheered. "Now, before we head off for bed, I'm going to go visit Luke."

"That's fine." Wigglytuff responded with a smile. "Swampert, you can set up your beds in the Dining Room."

"Thanks, Wigglytuff." Swampert walked to the door with Rita. "Goodnight, dude!"

"Goodnight, friends!"

[hr]

 _Knock Knock Knock!_

"I thought you said there'd be no visitors!" Konstantin hissed as he began putting his armor back on. By the time Luke reached the door, he was already finished re-arming. It was impressive, actually.

"I'm sorry!" Luke whined, paw on the door handle. "I don't know who-"

As the door was opened, the pikachu was picked up into a loving hug by an alolan pikachu. "Lukey!" She cried, rubbing a cheek on his.

"Mom?!" Luke cried, both in surprise and happiness.

The charmander just stood there, absolutely silent as only the faint sound of breathing came from behind his rather intimidating mask.

"It's so good to see you again!" Rita cheered, halting the hug and placing Luke down before turning to Konstantin. "You must be the infamous human turned charmander I keep hearing about in Luke's letters!" She floated over to him and held out a paw. "I'm Rita, Luke's mom and a former human!"

Konstantin stared at her paw, silent.

He looked her up and down, before speaking.

"So you're the one who's saved the world." He hummed from inside the metal mask. "I thought you'd be taller."

"Ahhhh!" Rita whined, spinning in a circle. "Why does everyone keep saying that! I mean, I'm still taller than when I was a pikachu!"

Luke rubbed the back of his head, already getting the feeling that Kon would probably be underestimating his mom, like with Wigglytuff.

He only gave a huff in return.

"Anyway, your son has been aiding me in gathering funds to commission the building of a Holy Church of the Light."

He pauses, and draws out the very detailed plans for the Church to show the alolan raichu. Where he got them from was the question that Luke would forever question.

"Be proud, for he contributes to a noble cause."

Rita took the plans and looked over them. "Hmmm. Do you have any other plans for what you are going to do with it?" She simply asked. "I mean, you are going to be the only one worshiping the light there since Dialga and Palkia exist."

The charmander took a deep breath.

"I will serve as the Abbot, if needed. I will lead sermons, baptize the newborn..." He trails off, then turns around, mumbling. "Verse LXVIII: Pray to the Light, for it will grant you joy..."

Then he shakes his head, and turns again to face Rita.

"Faith gives hope. And a little hope, however desperate, is never without worth."

Silence… and then. "Okay! Once you get enough money, I'll recommend an Engineer for you." Rita responded with a smile.

"I would be thankful." Konstantin says. "Hurm. You should bring your child to the Church once the egg hatches. I would be honored to lead a sermon commemorating your new addition to the family."

"Oh yes!" Rita gasped. "He'll be here in a few days with the eggs!"

"Well, I can't wait to see Dad again." Luke smiled, remembering sleeping in his dad's mane.

Then the alolan raichu remembered something. "Ah, Konstantin, will you come to Sharpedo Bluff alone tomorrow? It's to talk about something important."

The charmander stared her down for a moment.

"Okay." Was all he said.

"Good!" She leaned down and kissed Luke on the forehead. "Good night you two! See you both at breakfast!"

"Goodnight, Mom!" Luke waved to Rita as she left, closing the door.

For a second, there was silence. Then Luke fell face first into a pile of hay, muffled screaming coming out.

"Stop whining." The charmander chided, laying down on his blanket. "Remember, we have training tomorrow."

Luke turned his head to give Kon a dirty look before going back to screaming into the hay.

[hr]

It was morning and Luke was fidgeting with his cape as Team Crusaders walked into the main room. He could already hear the fascinated whispering from the other apprentices before they even entered the room. "I hope she doesn't announce that we're related. I really really really-" And he was panicking.

The armored charmander smacked Luke across the back of the head as he passed him.

"Stop panicking. It won't solve anything."

Luke whined in pain, slowly following Kon into the main room.

And right at the front, standing and floating next to Chatot, was Swampert and Rita. The one one main difference between last night and this morning was the fact that she was wearing her iconic long yellow ribbon on her right arm.

Swampert himself was wearing a thick red vest, peppered with pockets. On his left arm was some weird armlet thing. And he was twice the height of Rita!

"Hey-hey-hey! I can't believe Rescue Team Excalibur is going on the expedition!"

"Oh my gosh! I wonder if I can get Rita and Swampert's autographs!"

"Gawrsh. I wonder if I can get advice from them."

"Order!" Chatot spoke up, looking pretty nervous. "We have a few important notices to announce today."

Everyone looked to Chatot. "For one, Rescue Team Excalibur is, in fact, going on the Guild Expedition."

Right then, several pokemon started cheering and whooping. Luke covered his ears.

"Settle down! Settle down! For the second notice, Missions outside of town are prohibited due to a danger that has been brought to our attention. You may still, however, do missions in town to assist any refugees than come in."

And confusion abound.

"Now, I know you are all confused and I will inform you why this is. There is a large group of bandits lurking in the land, who are unafraid to kill."

And now there was an air of dread.

"Officer Magnezone and the police are working on finding their leader and any outliers. Right now, we are suspecting that they are the ones who stole the Time Gear and thus, if you have any info on them, inform me, Team Excalibur, or an officer right away."

"To at least brighten today, Miss Rita has made a classic Northern Island breakfast in the Dining Room."

There was a half hearted cheer from the apprentices before they headed for the Dining Room.

"I wonder where the Guildmaster is." Luke muttered.

[hr]

"Good morning! I'm your interrogator for this hour!"

The Brigand laughed cruelly. "Of course you are, Pink thing! You know, we've eaten a few pink things. But nothing but looked like you."

He grinned.

"I wonder how you'll taste. Oh well, we'll find out once VVulf comes for this place, eh?"

"Oh, is VVulf your leader? What is he like? I'm dying to know!"

A low chuckle came from the krokorok.

"So that's what you want to know, huh? Then let me regale you with the tales of the VVulf..."

[hr]

"Probably nowhere important." Kon responded in a dry voice before staring at the plate of pancakes in front of him. Rita had announced the breakfast and had left a few minutes later. Swampert was sitting at the table, eating as well.

"Hrmm." Luke grabbed a pancake and stuffed it in his mouth, ignoring the stares of the nearby pokemon. And the pikachu looked like he was in heaven.

Konstantin's fork clattered onto his empty plate as he finished eating.

Which is strange because no one saw him take off his mask. Or even hear him chewing.

Many of the pokemon decided not to think too hard about it, some of them leaving the Dining Room after eating. Comments about how good the food was floated about.

"Kon, if you wanna go on out to Treasure Town, go on ahead." Luke spoke up after drinking some milk. "I'll be a few minutes."

The armored charmander nodded and walked out.

Soon, he was walking down the steps, towards the crossroads. Of course, there was a strange scene there.

"Oh come on! I can defend myself just fine!" The red hatted oshawott protested to the two magneton officers blocking the exit. "My friends are still out there and one of them's real sick!"

"WE'RE SORRY BUT WE JUST CAN'T LET ANYONE OUT AT THIS TIME, WHEN THESE BANDITS ARE OUT THERE." One of the magneton explained, looking slightly tired.

"EVEN SENDING MESSAGES IS NOT RECOMMENDED DUE TO TO POSSIBILITY THAT THEY WOULD GET INTERCEPTED!"

"Graaaah!" The oshawott took off her hat and threw it to the ground in disgust, not noticing Kon getting closer. "I'll get my own way out, even if I have to sneak past you guys!" Then she picked the hat back up, dusting it off.

"Then you will by caught by the Brigands. And they will kill you, and eat your corpse." The armored charmander says from behind her.

"Eek!" She hopped in surprise before turning around. "Don't do that, Konny! I hate it when you do that!"

And then there was a second of silence before the oshawott started shaking. "Konny? Y-you're-"

Then she outright hugged him. "You're alive! I knew it!" She cheered, tears going down her face.

"Who the hell are you? Get off me before your intestines are no longer inside your body." Konstantin hissed menacingly from behind his metal mask.

"Ah! Good thinking!" She broke the hug and grabbed his hand instead. "We can't talk here! His goons might be watching us! Come on! To the beach!" And she tried to drag him down the path.

He shoved her away, rather violently, and drew his dagger.

"I don't know who the fuck you are, but I am not fool enough to trust a stranger."

The oshawott looked a little heartbroken before something clicked in her mind. "You've got amnesia, don't you?" She asked. "I mean, it would make sense given that's the biggest difference between what happened with you and Baldwin…"

The charmander is shaking from rage. "You know my forgotten memories? You know another?"

He stomps up to the oshawott, and grabs her by the arm hard enough to bruise. "Where!? Where are they!?" He hisses.

"Ow! I'll tell you! I'll tell you! But I can't tell you around these goons!" The oshawott exclaimed in pain before whispering. "Hand me your map, I'll show you where me, Baldwin, and Grovyle are staying."

He growled lowly, before shoving his map into her hands. She turned around, opening it before pointing to a small hilly area past Mt. Bristle. "We have a cave there. You probably won't be able to sneak out right now. Just meet up with me tonight at the entrance to Mt. Bristle and I'll lead the way!"

"Humph." The charmander was silent, before he roughly grabbed the map back.

"I'll be there." He said, walking toward Sharpedo Bluff.

He had Rita to meet.

"See ya there, Konny!" The oshawott waved before rubbing her own eyes.

As Kon walked through town, there was a sense of dread floating about. Many of the pokemon were barricading their houses with wood and stone in some cases. The more child-like pokemon were assisting with the barricades, a solemn look on their faces.

In all honesty, it was oddly familiar, this dampened, fearful atmosphere. He didn't know why. But, perhaps that blue otter could provide the answers he was seeking.

But soon, he was walking out of town onto the weirdly shaped bluff. Floating at the tip, was Rita. She turned around. "Hey, Konstantin!"

"You wanted to see me, Rita?" He replied gruffly.

"Yeah. Just to talk, really."

He just sat on the edge of the cliff silently.

After a minute or so, he spoke.

"This town is at risk of burning, the Guild too." He grumbles cynically. "No one will be spared if the Brigands come, not even the children."

"Yeah, figured as much. There's risk with everything." Rita replied, looking at the sea. "Humans can be pretty evil sometimes. They'll be stopped though." She smiled. "I have a few aces up my sleeve coming this way."

"We'll need all the help we can get." The charmander says.

Then he turns to look at Rita. "I'll take care of your son. Be certain that he'll outlive me."

"Thank you, but you really shouldn't look so down on your own life." Rita reached out and rubbed his head. "Your life is just as precious as Luke's or Chatot's or Swampert's."

He doesn't offer a response.

Rita hugged him. "I don't care who or what you were in the past. What is important now is that you are saving others."

Konstantin shrugged her touch off. "I'll keep it in mind."

Then he stood. "I should go. The church won't build itself."

"Talk with Machamp." Rita spoke up, still sitting on the tip of the bluff. "He's a good Engineer."

"Thank you." He said, then turned and walked back to town.

He needed to raise money, then he'd talk to this machamp.

As soon as Kon had walked away, she rubbed at her eyes, fighting the tears. "Heh. I didn't even get to tell him about how I came to have amnesia."

[hr]

Darkrai was not having a good time. The girl had met Konstantin and opened the way for him to meet Baldwin.

And the fusion was not ready!

Even kidnapping those humans and throwing them in would probably only delay him.

The nightmare pokemon was hissing in rage before floating into the temporary base for VVulf's gang. One of those foolish humans forgot what happened the last time, attempting to attack him. With just one hand, he hit the idiot with a Dark Void, forcing him into a deep nightmare.

And then, like the flick of a switch, the human took control. "VVulf!" The unmistakable voice of the Ancestor boomed through the camp, as the many, many Brigands about sneered and scowled at Darkrai. "I have need of you."

Not a moment later, a monstrous figure stepped out of a tent. A towering rhyperior stomped forth, even larger than most of its kind. Clad in green scraps of clothing and scaled metal armor, he bore a massive tower shield with the blood red emblem of the Brigand Brigade painted on it.

As well, the pelt of a midday lycanroc was draped over one shoulder, it looked freshly skinned.

"Ye called, Ancestor?" The Brigand leader sneered, unafraid. "What is it you wan' this time?"

Darkrai took control before the Ancestor could say another word. "The former human! The charmander! Attack Treasure Town tonight! You need to kill the charmander named Konstantin tonight!" The dark type hissed out. "Do this and we will get you anything you want!"

VVulf let out a great, bellowing laugh. "Treasure town, eh? Now that certainly seems like a nice suggestion."

He gives a sickly grin. "You'll have his head, nice and fresh."

"Hear that boys!?" He boomed, the trees shaking as he addressed the assembled Brigands. "We've got us a contract!"

The crooks, murderers, and other assembled criminals gave a howl in return.

And so they began to busy themselves, loading guns, sharpening blades...

And in one end of the clearing... They polished and readied a war machine of terrible implication...

"If you need assistance, use this and I will send a minion to help." Darkrai held up a small golden ring for the rock type pokemon to take.

VVulf only laughed mockingly.

"Keep your little pet!" He said, brushing past Darkrai as he moved to organize the Brigand Brigade, still laughing.

The legendary fumed before using the ring to go back to the Ancestor's world. He needed to check on Hoopa after all. He had sensed something weird but had pushed it off due to the stress of seeing that girl meeting that gods forsaken man again!

As he faded into Hoopa's holding cell, he lost control, slashing the wall and screaming in rage. In the center of the room, the chains and manacles meant to keep the greedy legend there were open and empty. The runes he was using to drain any power he produced were gone. And the secret door was open.

His screams of rage were cut off abruptly by the Ancestor once again taking control.

And he laughed. The Ancestor only laughed.

[hr]

A/N

Whelp. Good bye rails. It was nice being close to you.

And yes, Rita is loosely based on Rita from Tales of Vesperia.

Zara?

zaravan : The wolves are at the door!


	13. Interlude 3

**Interlude 3**

 **A Trapped Child?**

It was the crying from the wall that alerted the Adventurers that something was different.

Hidden rooms were nothing special, of course. But this group of Legend Adventurers hadn't ever come across a Prisoner room outside of the Crimson Court. The Highwayman knocked on the wall several times before he found the false part, and managed to wrench open the way.

The Crusader went first, followed by the Highwayman, then the Bounty Hunter, and finally, the Vestal.

Their torch was as bright as could be, and they so stepped into the room.

And it was such a surprise to see what was in the middle of it. It was a small thing that looked like a Djinn, only a foot tall while primarily being pink and grey. Manacles that seemed specifically created for it were wrapped around its neck and disconnected arms, chaining it inside a circle of glowing eldritch runes and golden rings.

And it seemed just as shocked to see the humans. "H-humans? H-how did humans find me?" It asked aloud, unaware that it actually did.

"Saints, what is that?" The Vestal whispered.

"This is new." Mumbled the Highwayman.

The Bounty Hunter simply gave off a snort.

"Greetings, creature!" The Crusader said. "We are Adventurers, cleansing this Estate from the evil that plagues it!"

He then leaned down to look at the runes.

"Hm." He mumbled as he thought for a moment. "Ah! I know what must be done!" He declared triumphantly. And with that, he pulled out a bottle of Holy Water, and poured it over the runes, purifying them of their unholy aura, and washing them away.

The creature stared at the runes vanished, trying to move out of the manacles but failing that, proceeded to start headbutting the chains, trying to break them.

After a few seconds, it stopped, rubbing it's head with tears in it's eyes. It was a rather pitiful thing to see. "I-I don't wanna be here anymore!" It cried, much like a child traumatized.

The Crusader stood there, rubbing a finger against his faceplate, in deep thought.

The Highwayman scoffed, and stepped forward. "'Ain't that hard to figure out what to do."

Kneeling by the odd, colorful creature, the scruffy man pulled out several Skeleton keys. One by one, the shackles fell to the ground.

"Easy." The Highwayman said, rather smug.

The creature floated up, the rings disappearing save for two, which went over it's horns. It flexed slightly before cheering and hugging the Highwayman's face. "THANK YOU!" Then, it proceeded to hug the other human's faces, while saying thank you as well.

"I'm gonna go home and tell Diance about stupid idiotic jerkish Darkrai!" The creature took off one of the rings, trying to use it. Then, it winced in pain before reaching into the ring with one of his arms. Then its eyes widened.

"THAT NO GOOD DARK TYPE!" It yelled, looking comedically frustrated. "He took my Prison Bottle! I can't go home!"

"What the fuck is it talking about?" Whispered the Highwayman, to which the Bounty Hunter shrugged.

"Aha!" Cried the Crusader. "Mayhaps we can take you to The Heir, I'm sure he'll know what to do!" He said confidently.

It turned back to them, dejected. "Okay..." Then it perked up and pointed to the bottle that once held Holy Water. "But I want that bottle as well!"

"I- Sure, you can have it." The Highwayman said, somewhat bewildered.

It snatched the bottle, hugging it before floating over to the Bounty Hunter and settling on his left shoulder. "Let's go then. More shinies await!" And it was rubbing the bottle now…

With more wordless shrugs exchanged between the Adventurers, they left the room, and uneventfully came across a door at the end of the hall.

"Alright." The Crusader began. "We just have to clean up this last room and we'll have finished cleansing this part of the Ruins! Now, charge friends!"

With triumphant yells, the four (And the creature) burst into the room.

Whirling around, the animated dead revealed themselves!

Hissing, they drew their weapons. Two were armed with swords, one with a crossbow, and the last held a knife and a goblet!

The creature ignored the undead, focusing more on what the last held. "I want that cup!" He declared, pointing towards the goblet. "It is interesting and neat and shiny and I want it!"

The Adventurers shrugged, before laying into the Skeletons with all the fury you'd expect from Elites like them.

The Bounty Hunter paused as he moved to swing his axe. He looked at the colorful creature, then picked it up with a hand.

"You want it?" He asked rhetorically. "Go get it."

Then he threw the creature straight at the Bone Royalty's skull, and the snappily dressed skeleton began panicking and waving its arms around, unsuccessfully attempting to get the creature off of him.

The distraction proved to be enough for the others to finish off the Skeletons, it seemed.

It held the goblet, looking happy while it smashed the skeleton into a wall with a psychic blast. The creature rubbed the goblet before putting it in one of his rings, the goblet disappearing. "Thank you, humans!"

"We have won the day!" The Crusader cried heroically. "Now, let us go back to the Hamlet, so the Heir might meet our new friend!"

The Vestal nodded. "I would do to catch up on my verses."

"I could use a drink. Or five." The Highwayman snarked.

The Bounty Hunter just snorted as the creature landed on his shoulder again. "Away!" It cried, seeming much happier than when they first found it.

With no more to say, the five of them retraced their steps back through empty, decrepit halls, their destination the relative safety of the Hamlet.

The creature stayed clinging to the Bounty Hunter's head, looking around with curiosity at all the new sights.

Eventually, they arrived in the squalid, suffering, yet slowly recovering Hamlet the Heir bore responsibility for.

The Crusader went to introduce the creature to the Heir, while the others went their own ways, the creature following the Crusader.

As they came towards the door to the Heir's study, the Crusader was busy lecturing the pokemon.

"Now, please. You must be polite! It is quite important you make a good impression!" He said, as he knocked on the door.

"Uh-huh." It seemed to be distracted.

After a few silent moments, a voice came from the other side.

"Enter."

They did.

The creature was just ooh-ing at the items in the room, suddenly going quiet when he noticed that claw mark on the desk. "That… THAT JERK WAS HERE!" The creature started flailing angrily in the air. "I hope he got poked in the eye with a paper and got lots of paper cuts, that jerk!"

"A-Ah, My Lord! I apologize for the-" But he was silenced with a raised hand.

"It is fine, Reynauld." Then, the Heir turned to face the creature, his face cloaked in shadow.

"You know that shadowy creature?" He questioned.

"We found this being chained against its will, secreted in a hidden room. It was bound with hellish runes and chains. We freed it from it's bonds, and brought it here." The Knight explained.

The Heir gave a hum of acknowledgement in response. "I see. Then clearly you are no friend of it." A statement directed at the colorful pokemon.

"Now. Who are you? And who do you speak of?"

The creature turned to the Heir. "I'm Hoopa, Treasure Hunter extraordinaire and honorary Legendary pokemon!" Hoopa was fuming in the air. "And it was Darkrai who did that to me!"

For a long time, the Heir stared at Hoopa.

"What the fuck is a pokerman?" He droned.

"Pokemon! And we're kinda like humans, only we got lots more species than your Homo Sapien and a lot more powers. And we were created by the Original One's daughter, Mew!" Hoopa reached into a ring and pulled out a few paintings, showing various pokemon, before handing them to the Heir and the Crusader.

Wordlessly, the Heir pulled out a bottle of whiskey from his desk. He uncorked it, took a long, long drink, and placed it on the table.

He took a deep breath, and then slammed his fists on the table, sending papers flying.

"I bet the Ancestor did this!" He fumed.

"Mhm. Probably." Reynauld concurred.

Hoopa looked confused by what the Heir said, absentmindedly grabbing papers out of the air.

"Oh!" The Crusader gasped as he stared at a picture of a pikachu. "This one's quite adorable!

"That's a pikachu." Hoopa hummed. "Still don't understand why they were so popular with humans before the Original One split the world."

Then Hoopa shook his head. "But yeah, Darkrai is the legendary pokemon focused on nightmares but he's always been a good guy until he tricked me!" Hoopa was shaking. "He told me there was lots of treasure here that no one would mind me taking! Then he took my Prison Bottle and forced me in those manacles and rune circles! And he was taking my powers and doing who knows what with them and left me there with nothing!"

The Heir stayed quiet for a moment, before giving a small huff.

"Then it seems we need to aid you, don't we Reynauld?"

Said Crusader looked up from the picture, starting a bit. "O-Oh, yes Lord! Of course! We shall give aid to those who are in need of it!" He said, pointing a finger in the air triumphantly.

Hoopa gasped. "You'll actually help me?" The Djinn pokemon cheered before rushing over and hugging the Heir's arm. "Thank you! Together, we can stop that jerk before he ruins my world!"

And then Hoopa's stomach announced that the legendary pokemon was hungry.

"Hmph. Reynauld, show our new friend to the Barracks, they can get some food there." The Heir orders.

"Of course, my Lord!" The Crusader booms, and leads Hoopa out of the room.

As the door closed behind them, The Heir faced the window that gave a view of the Hamlet, and gazed out of it.

"I know you had something to do with this, you bastard." He growled menacingly. "And I will put an end to your failings, like always."

[hr]

A/N

So yeah… Darkrai/Ancestor is a jerk but at least Hoopa is semi-free and has got friends now.

And some foreshadowing. (Personally, I think Reynauld would hug Luke if they ever met.)

Zara?

zaravan : As always, the consequences of the Ancestor's mistakes are far reaching.

Time will tell if things can be set right.


	14. Chapter 2-4

**Chapter 2-4**

 **Boiling Point**

"Here's all the info I got out of our friendly captive!" Wigglytuff announced, handing over his report as Swampert walked in to talk with the human turned pokemon.

As the pokemon gathered to defend the town read the report, Magnezone spoke everyone thoughts. "WELL, THIS IS DISCONCERNING."

 _"Our invaders are most likely all formerly human, but with odd abilities. Our prisoner claims that VVulf has died and come back several times. Whether or not it is simply hyping of his escaping abilities or not is unclear, though we should treat him like he does have this ability. Capture only if possible to do so without serious harm._

 _Also, our prisoner has told us about what pokemon VVulf is. A Rhyperior, so I would suggest those strong to rock types and ground types but with resistance to steel types go against him if encountered. All others should flee on site._

 _All the other former humans will and have killed lives, human and most likely pokemon as well. Their most recent 'exploit' was to kill a rebellion of common humans by a corrupted royal or noble. Given that they did not spare anyone, it is recommended that no one holds back against them._

 _However, if they are like Konstantin, they may not know the first thing when it comes to fighting like us. But, thanks to Konstantin, we have more ideas on how they fight. Attached to this report is what I know so far, though we should bring in Konstantin himself to get his side as well._

 _So ends my report. -Wigglytuff~3"_

"Whelp." A mightyena in the room spoke up, having heard rumors about the charmander. "This is going to suck."

The rest of the pokemon were silent, thinking about how best to approach Kon.

…

"Hey buddy." Swampert settled in opposite the human bandit turned ground type pokemon. "You wanna work with me some on how we're gonna get you outta here?"

"You, get me out?" The Fusilier cackled mockingly. "I'll be out of here soon, anyway. VVulf's coming, I know it. He won't let the deaths of his men go without making you pay, eh? He'll burn this little town of yours to the ground, and your heads will be left on pikes to serve as warnings to anyone, _not to fuck with the Brigand Brigade!_ " He howls, laughing.

"You know, I actually know a lot about Humans." Swampert placed down a knife on the floor. "We know how they work and given what VVulf and the other humans have done, we are giving you a chance. Not just freedom but a better life." The water type sighed, playing with the knife. "Of course, I'll just come back later after we save everyone from your boss and then we can have this talk again."

"Heh, I'm sure." The krokorok muttered, turning to stare at the wall of his cell.

Swampert grabbed the knife and walked out. "Oh yes!" THe water/ground type walked back in, taking out a sketch of a Time Gear. "Have you or any of your fellow humans taken one of these?"

The fusilier looked off and scoffed.

…

Luke was face palming at Kon's antics with both paws. Machamp had told them that they just didn't have enough to buy a plot of land and build a church. He had offered a program where they could pay it off over time with interest but Luke gently declined.

Which lead to Kon stealing a bucket.

"Hear ye, hear ye!" Konstantin boomed, standing on top of a crate and ringing a small bell. "In the name of the Saints, of the goodness of your hearts, spare a coin or two, to see that a safe place of holy worship may be constructed!"

"Why did you have a bell on your belt bags?" Luke had to ask, ignoring the weird looks that were coming their way.

Konstantin paused, and slowly turned his head to face Luke, several very audible cracking noises coming from him as he did so, and only silently glared malevolently at the pikachu.

"Right. Just a human thing." Luke muttered looking away from the creepy charmander. "Anyways, do you have any idea when the humans are coming to attack?"

The charmander thought for a moment, before replying: "Forty weeks."

"That…" Luke was quiet as he thought of how long that was. "That's a pretty long time to wait. Like, almost a year. Why would they wait so long. "

Konstantin only shrugged, before going back to ringing his bell.

Luke sat down next to the crate, holding up the bucket and trying his best to seem sad. That at least got them a coin in the bucket from a oddly jovial looking dusknoir. "Great. Now we just need like nineteen thousand more."

Then Luke did a double take, dropping the bucket. "T-that was Dusknoir!" He was shaking in excitement.

"Literally who?" Konstantin droned.

"He's, like, one of the greatest up-and-coming Explorers! He's really strong, about half as strong as my mom, and he's made tons of discoveries that no one else could have dreamed of! And he only works alone!"

The armored charmander looks to the single coin, then at Dusknoir's retreating form.

"Cheapskate." He hisses, barely suppressed rage in his tone.

"Well, he probably doesn't have a lot to begin with." Luke explained, grabbing the coin and looking all giddy. "He doesn't take payment for the missions he does! 'All for the greater good!" As he has said!"

Konstantin was just seething at Dusknoir's back, his malevolence could be felt. If it were given form, the town would be leveled.

"Kon, we can get more money later after the bandits are taken care of." Luke tried to console his human partner. "There'll probably be a lot of missions to rebuild the town after Mom and Swampert take em all down a peg!"

With his back turned to the two pokemon, Dusknior suppressed a smirk as he kept moving. _'It seems, dear Stanley really can't remember anything right now. I'll have to thank Rita for telling me about Stanley's amnesia before I return with him and her son.'_

Konstantin suddenly felt a wave of pure, undiluted rage wash over him, murderous intent filled him, and he fell off of the box, convulsing from the effort of trying not to scream, murder someone, and have a stroke at the same time. Even Luke trying to hold him down didn't stop the rage.

Something that did stop it was the sound of a large amount of coins being dumped into the bucket. Looking over, the two would see, surprisingly, Team Skull.

Konstantin slowly looks toward the three poison types, before saying; "Your patronage is appreciated, in the name of the Saints, and the Light, go with it's blessing, and may it protect you in your darkest hour."

"We-we were actually just giving you half of the money we got." Skuntank responded, looking a little nervous. "We didn't really care about donating to your church to the light of the Original One or whatever. Besides, the cops told us to stick around."

"Best to be ready for an attack." Konstantin says, pushing himself to his feet. "If the Brigands catch you off guard when they come, they will not hesitate to butcher you."

"Actually-" Zubat spoke up. "They just wanted to know how the brigands we-" He shuddered, "-killed fought."

"That so?" The charmander mumbled, turning to look at the sky. "I trust you relayed all you could?"

"We did." Koffing confirmed. "And they're probably want you guys soon."

Konstantin gave a small nod. "Noted. And again, your contribution to the Holy Church will not go unforgotten. Remember that."

"W-we will!" The three moved on, trying not to show their relief that they had gotten on the charmander's good side.

Luke sighed. "Well, at least that seemed to stop you from biting off your own tongue." He grinned ever so slightly. "And we can probably go ahead down to the station and see what else they want from you…"

"First, we start training." Konstantin says, pocketing the coins and forcefully dragging Luke over towards a field.

"But we got to return the bucket!" Luke uselessly cried, not wanting to train with the pistol that Kon… 'liberated'. It was a bit too loud for his ears.

…

Swampert was setting up targets in a field just a bit out of town. The sun was low in the sky and they had just got a report in from some flying pokemon.

The brigands were heading that way, expected to arrive sooner or later. The calculations were unsure, due to the large metal thing they seemed to be pushing along.

That was why Swampert was setting up the targets. They need to learn quickly how they would fight and given what he had been told about the former human, he may have run with the group at one point before getting amnesia.

While it didn't make him completely innocent, it did at least make him a better human than those with purely destruction on their mind.

The water type heard pokemon approaching, seeing Rita. Wigglytuff, and Magnezone coming over to inspect the wooden targets.

"Good job, dude!" Rita grinned, having only given them a cursory glance. She trusted her partner after all.

"THEY ARE OKAY."

"Absolutely perfect!"

Swampert grinned. "Thanks, guys." Then he glanced over and saw Kon for really the first time, along with Luke. And he had a whole lot of other pokemon there too, including a terrified looking meowth and a grimer.

Konstantin had ended up rounding up several other bipedal Pokemon as well, he shoved a pistol or a blunderbuss in their appendages, and lead them to the field alongside Luke, who he had improvised for a sash to hold his pistol.

Luke was just mentally wondering where Kon had gotten all these weapons since the three bandits they fought had far less weapons than the charmander had passed out. That chain of questioning the physics of the weird human turned pokemon was discarded when he saw Swampert.

"Uncle!" Luke rushed over on all fours and tackle hugged his mom's partner.

"Hey there squirt!" Swampert hugged the electric type he had known since he was just an egg. "I see your getting along with your partner!"

"Well, yeah..." Luke muttered. "He's a little… complicated though."

"Luke!" Konstantin booms. "Get over here, don't you dare try to weasel out of training!"

"Yeah…" Luke squeaked as Swampert rubbed his head.

"Don't worry about it, let me talk to him." The water type put Luke down and walked over to Kon. "Actually, you'll have to hold off on the training for a moment. We have gotten more information and need more info from you."

A huff came from behind his metal mask. "What information do you require? And make it quick, these new-bloods need training." He gestures to the gaggle of Poke-militia behind him.

"Mostly on how they fight, and what kind of damage the big metal thing they have does. We'd also like to see you fight, mainly to get some experience for how they'll fight."

"Hmph." He turns to the militia. "Alright! Watch and learn, soldiers! Maybe you'll pick up something!"

With that, he steps over to the targets, and unholsters his blunderbuss.

He pauses, and turns to Swampert.

"Big metal thing? What did it look like?"

"Like a giant jar on it's side on a scaffolding of wood." Swampert explained simply.

The charmander clutches his head for a moment, before shaking it off.

"A marvel of technology. An engine of destruction. Ngh. It probably turn you all into a thin red paste." He says at Rita, Wigglytuff, and Magnezone.

"It is a warmachine of terrible implication."

"Hm, well, that's not very good at all." Swampert had a hand to his chin. "Guess I gotta smash it when they arrive then."

Konstantin only shrugs. "Then I wish you luck."

He then turns to the targets, before attacking.

He first blasts a hole in one of them with perfect accuracy, before splitting another clean in half with a vicious uppercut from his dagger.

Then he fires again, blasting bits off of several targets at once with a single pull off the trigger.

Gun smoking, he holsters his blunderbuss and turns to the militia.

"When we're done here, you'll all be able to do that and better!" He booms, voice commanding.

Saladin proceed to faint, falling on Mana. Luke facepalmed.

"Actually-" Rita spoke up, floating over to Kon. "We'd like your help after you show off more. It's to ensure the safety of the civilians in town. After all, they'll be here late tonight at the earliest."

"I cannot put off their training." He grumbles. "Besides, you're a Hero, aren't you? Or was I wrong?"

Rita's slight grimace was unseen by everyone but Swampert and Wigglytuff.

"The militia will be the line that separates the civilians and the brigands. I will not leave things to chance."

"After this." He says, turning to the militia. "They will be Heroes, every one of them."

"Well, we can probably combine our plans then~!" Rita chirped, floating over and whispering exactly what they were going to do, and how to incorporate the militia.

A/N: **WE'RE BACK! OVERHEATING COMPUTERS AND INTERNET TROUBLES COULDN'T KEEP THIS MUSE DOWN!**

Speaking of muse, made a tumblr for the fic, a mostly RP one. It's PMD-innocent-sinner. Go check it out, send questions.

Zara? Your thoughts?

zaravan: I am glad to be back and working on this.


	15. Chapter 2-5

**2-5**

 **Explosion**

He had drilled them hard. Over and over he had ordered them.

 _'Load! Aim! Fire!'_

And more and more he had pushed them.

 _'Faster, faster! You think the enemy will wait for you to finish!? Powder, then Shot, then ramrod! Again!'_

After a while, he had deemed them... capable. They'd have to do. But he'd drawn up a plan. Barricades would be constructed and manned by the Militia, while Rita, Swampert, Wigglytuff, and the other 'Heroes' would take the fight to them.

Meanwhile, the civilians, those too young, too old, and too scared to fight would be sequestered safely in the nearby cave, with some of the Militia left to guard them.

He thought about the oshawott. He couldn't leave. Not now. But he knew what to do.

"Luke." He said to the pikachu as he tore his gaze from the horizon, "Finish up here. I have one last task to complete myself."

Then, without waiting, he went to meet that oshawott.

"I- Um…" Luke watched Kon run off, feeling a little curious on where the charmander was going off to in such a hurry. Then, he made a snap decision.

…

"We need to release it now!" Darkrai hissed. "Before he gets to them!"

"At this point, with the yellow rat staying behind, it will not last against all these wretched 'Heroes' here. No, when they are complacent, when they think that normality is restored, that is when it shall strike." The Ancestor rumbled.

Darkrai took control back as he looked out from the shadows, getting furious. And then blinked in confusion before moving away from the shadows near town.

The pikachu leaving didn't confuse him. It was the fact that the pikachu's mother had been looking directly at the shadows he had been hiding in. How? How did she know he was there?

"... Now? Now can we release it since the pikachu is being an absolute moron?!"

"Ah." The Ancestor mumbled. "So be it. Release the horrific abomination that we have seen to unleash upon the world!" He boomed, dramatic as always.

Darkrai lifted his arm, taking out the golden ring he should have have forcibly given to VVulf. He moved through the shadows, moving ahead of the pikachu.

But he paused, remembering how close they were to the town. And he decided to wait until the pikachu was farther away…

...

Rita looked up to the sky. The bandits would be here in a few hours at the earliest. She could see the smoke in the distance.

At least the barricades were sturdy and well built. The militia members who were staying around to help defend were looking for strategic places to attack from.

The raichu looked around, last minute preparations still being done. She blinked before looking to Dusknoir, who was ordering some sableye around.

"Hey, Dusknoir." The ghost type glanced over with his singular eye. "Have you seen Luke or Kon?"

Dusknoir put a hand to his 'face', thinking. "Not recently." A shift in his 'face' was all Rita needed to know.

"Okay. I guess they went down to the cave already." Rita grinned. "Thanks, Dusknoir."

He nodded and looked away, missing how Rita's face went darker. _'He's lying. He must have seen them leave.'_

…

Luke panted, wondering how Kon could keep moving so quickly after everything they had done today. Given how the direction they were heading, the pikachu knew they were heading for Mt. Bristle.

 _'But why?'_ The pikachu thought, deciding to take a small break. _'What's over there that he needs to do?'_

He gulped in air before starting to follow the former human in secret, unaware of the danger in the very shadows. Until it was almost too late.

It moved out of the darkness, Luke hearing the chattering of teeth just in time to avoid it's first attack.

Then he got a good look at it. "A-A corrupted!" And the Corrupted flung something at Luke, the pikachu dodging.

And then the pikachu screamed in pain as he got zapped from behind.

…

Konstantin could see the bright red cap from here.

Now, all he had to do was meet her, and force her to bring her 'friends' back to help defend Treasure Town. And apparently, she had already noticed him, waving wildly.

He took a single step forwards before the most bone chilling sound pierced the night.

A pain filled scream. Luke's scream.

 _Luke._

Everything became secondary in that moment. The town. His past. His hopes.

He spun, drew his knife and blunderbuss, and charged back, howling.

He had told Luke to stay back, and this was exactly why.

If whatever was attacking Luke didn't kill him, the armored charmander would.

Needless to say, he missed the oshawott's worried look.

...

Konstantin ran into the clearing, howling at the top of his lungs. And that all died when he saw what was surrounding Luke.

Heads.

Pikachu heads, pichu heads, and raichu heads.

Spines hung from their still bleeding neck stumps and their eyes filled with soulless blue light.

And approaching the circle was something different, but so god damn familiar to Kon. And looming tall overhead, was a filthy, yellow robe, topped by a cage filled with burning blue flames. And rattling about inside it, knocking against the bars, was the charred, barely recognizable head of a Mimikyu's disguise.

Then the robe opened, and horror began anew, for even more heads of Pikachus, Raichus, even Pichus were inside, as if SEWN into the robe. Their eyes were ablaze with blue light, and they seemed frozen in agony.

Then, the horrific abomination pointed a twisted, bony finger at Luke.

And it **SCREECHED**.

Luke tried to get up on all four, cheeks sparking, but he was zapped back down by one of the raichu heads. And Kon's rage sparked back to life.

The charmander gave another howl, and sliced apart the head of a Raichu as he charged, firing a load of buckshot off and blowing apart three more Collected.

"K-Kon?" Luke whispered, weakly looking up. He felt completely overloaded with electricity and it was really hurting him. He need to discharge all this extra electricity. But if he did, Kon would get hurt, maybe even killed.

The armored pokemon was barely listening, consumed with striking down the Heads, chopping, slicing, blasting.

One after another he thinned the swarming, tortured souls.

Luke shakily stood up before firing an overcharged thundershock at the Corrupted Mimikyu. Even that little bit actually made the pikachu feel better.

Then he dodged when one of the raichu took on a ethereal blue body and tried to slam into him. It was followed shortly by Kon stabbing it in the head.

"Kon… this thing...this Corrupted...what the hell even is it?" Luke groaned out, zapping one of the heads.

"The sparkling eyes of youth, twisted and made merciless!" He hisses cryptically in response, cleaving a Pichu's ghostly head in twain.

"Well…that's true of all Corrupted." Luke gasped, doubling over when he got hit by a bolt from a pikachu head.

Then, Luke realized something. "Kon… just run and go warn my mom!"

"Shut up!" The charmander howled in response. "If you think I'd abandon you, then you're more of a naive _CHILD_ than I realized!" He spat, continuing to blast and stomp and cleave.

"Kon!" Luke snapped. "They pushed too much electricity in me! If I don't let it discharge, I might die!"

"Then discharge!" Konstantin ordered in response. "Do it! I can take it! If you trust me, then **DO IT!** "

Luke glanced between Kon and the Corrupted Mimikyu, which seemed to be doing something.

Then Luke closed his eyes and used Discharge.

The clearing was lit up with electricity.

…

Luke groaned, waking from unconsciousness. He felt like crap and the smell of scorched grass and flesh floated in the air. "Kon?" He coughed out.

There he was. Still standing, if barely. Sparking, scorched and heaving. He twitched as he looked at Luke.

"Told you...I could...take it..." He coughed.

Luke just let out a small hysterical laugh at that. "Cheri berry." The pikachu moved his bag a little so the charmander would notice it. "Heal paralysis."

A deafening, enraged screech echoed through the trees, and two hands of naught but bone clasped around Luke's throat, and raised him high.

As the abomination held the pikachu, it forced him to gaze into it's empty, soulless eyes.

Konstantin twitched, trying to raise his gun.

Then he twitched again, raising it a little higher.

Slowly, despite the pain, the charmander slowly managed to aim his blunderbuss bit by bit at the Mimikyu in Yellow.

As his finger twitched toward the trigger, the horrid ghostly thing opened it's coat, and Luke could only feel raw terror as the many agonized faces of the other chus gazed at him with haunting, ethereal eyes.

Luke couldn't even scream, even as deafening sound of a crack ran through the clearing.

A/N

AHahah, it is the dreaded Cliff Hanger!

Also, The Mimikollector has arrived to ruin everyone's day! And he actually came to our minds real early on due to me making a joke about him, 'Showing His Wares'. I don't remember what mentally made me connect Collector and Mimikyu, but it happened.

Zara?

zaravan : The Collector's appearance is based on the Cosmic Horror figure known as the 'King In Yellow'. Certainly a terrifying figure.


	16. Chapter 2-6

**2-6**

 **Heroes**

For the briefest of moments, Konstantin's heart stopped.

A large broken sword had cut the monster's arms in twain.

One that Kon vaguely recognized from his dreams.

Luke fell to the ground, coughing before a pair of green arms reached up and pulled the pikachu down into the ground. Followed shortly by a masked lucario in strange armor pushing the yellow robed creature away with a smack from it's gloved paw.

Then the masked pokemon looked to Kon. "Well met, Konstantin."

"You." Konstantin hissed, regaining most of his strength. "I know you. But I do not." He punctuated this with a blast of his blunderbuss, the shot slamming into the Abomination.

"Given what Mia has explained to us, I am not surprised." The lucario pulled his sword out of the ground. "And worry not for the pikachu. Grovyle is keeping him safe and out of this… aberration resembling the Collector."

He nods in response, and the charmander rushes the Corrupted Mimikyu, viciously stabbing at it.

It screeched, moving away while seemingly looking around for where Luke went.

"X-Scissor!" The oshawott jumped out of the ground behind it, slicing it's back twice with her shell.

It screamed in pain, a hellish sound that would give most normal pokemon pause as it spun around to see who attacked it. But Konstantin did not relent, and he only flung himself onto it's back, unceasing in his brutality as he continued stabbing deep.

It continued to scream, even as the lucario rushed over and sliced down on it, missing Kon. The hatted oshawott slashed up it's front, her shell giving off a dark feeling energy.

Climbing upwards, Konstantin raised his dagger, and plunged it between the bars of the lit cage, into the 'head' of the horrible creature.

It froze up as soon as Kon did that. And started jittering as Konstantin pulled his dagger out and stabbed again and again and again.

Even when it fell, the stabbing continued.

At least until the green arm from before grabbed his arm. "Enough. It is dead and decaying." A stern voice spoke up.

He relents, shrugging them off.

Then, he is struck by an all-consuming compulsion, and he begins digging through the thing's corpse.

After a moment, he holds up his prize. A burlap bag, dripping blood and stained red. Nodding, he ties it to his waist.

"Ewww. Gross, Konny." The oshawott spoke up, walking closer before looking to the Lucario. "So Baldwin, Grovyle, what we do with the pikachu? I mean, he might try to claim he's part of our 'crime party' or 'time conspiracy' or something equally as ridiculous."

"Doesn't matter. I don't care." Konstantin gruffly interrupts. "I have come to bring you all back. Treasure Town is under siege by Brigands. And they have brought with them a war machine of terrible implication."

"I would assume it would be VVulf's pack, somehow having jumped worlds as we have, Konstantin." Baldwin responded.

He shrugs in response, before going over to check on Luke. "Probably. Nevertheless, you're all coming back with me to Treasure Town to help defend it."

"That may be a problem…" The oshawott muttered. "I mean, we've still got three more things to get so we can stop the World Paralysis from ever happening…"

Luke groaned a little. His fur was singed and dirty but outwardly, he looked fin in the grovyle's arms. "What? What's World Paralysis?"

"You don't have a choice!" Konstantin hissed at the three, tightening his grip on his blunderbuss. "We will need all the help we can gather, or else the Town will BURN and it's inhabitants all slaughtered!"

Baldwin had tilted his head low in thought before speaking. "I shall go with you to assist but Grovyle and Mia cannot go."

"And why is that? Are they lacking in spine?" The charmander says pointedly.

"No. It is because they need to continue their work to stop the World Paralysis or it won't matter if we stop VVulf's pack of runts."

"If it is that important, then so be it." He says, starting to walk back. "Let's go, Luke."

"But, what is World Paralysis?" Luke asked, shakily standing when Grovyle let him go.

"A theory about what would happen if Time were to ever freeze." A familiar female voice entered the charred clearing, and Rita floating in. "Not many really learn about it."

Baldwin, Grovyle, and Mia all tensed up, expecting a battle.

"Rita." Konstantin said simply. "I have employed this blue dog thing to help aid in the defense of the Town."

"Lucario." Grovyle corrected.

"Whatever." He muttered. "We were just on our way back."

"We also killed another Corrupted, as well." Kon added onto his last sentence. "It seemed to have a ...Collection of Chu heads. It targeted Luke, specifically as well."

"I saw when Baldwin saved him. Speaking of which…" Rita looked over to the corpse before her eyes glowed purple. And the corpse absolutely flattened by a psychic force before being torn to shreds. And then a lighting bolt hit the shreds.

Konstantin gave a nod of approval before Balwin spoke. "How long have you been observing the battle and us?"

"Well, I really just got here when you cut that thing's arms off and felt that I really didn't need to fight. Still, I could have stepped in easily." Rita tilted in the air slightly. "Which leads me to my question. Did you three steal the Time Gear from Treeshroud Forest?"

"... Yes." Grovyle answered honestly. He didn't see a point in lying to her.

"Hm, figures as much. So how'd you guys figure out that the World Paralysis was going to happen? Unless... " Rita floated over and picked up Luke.

"Unless what, Mom?"

"Kon and those three are from the future where time froze." Rita guessed. "Am I right?"

Grovyle shrugged. "Yes, we are."

"That's… But how…" Luke's mind was starting to fry from thinking about the implications. The other could practically see the smoke coming out the pikachu's ears.

"Thought so. Explains why Kon acts so differently." Rita picked up Luke. "Well, we really don't have much time left. We should be getting back before Dusknoir gets suspicious."

The three pokemon from the future tensed up at Dusknoir's name. "Him…" Grovyle growled out.

"I'll flay the fucker alive and screaming, I swear it." The charmander hisses.

Of course, Luke was confused. "Um, what's wrong with Dusknoir? He's a good guy, isn't he?"

Rita just rubbed his head. "We'll get a more in depth answer later but honestly, I've had a bad vibe from him the moment I met him."

"Now~!" She picked up Baldwin and Kon with a Psychic. "We gotta go now~!"

Rita waved to Grovyle and Mia. "Goodbye. See you two later!"

"What!? Desist! Cease! Put me down!" Konstantin bellowed, flailing violently. "Stop it, stop it, stop it!"

Baldwin just sat there in the air, curious of the effect going on.

"Sorry, Kon. We gotta go fast!" And then, they were off, Rita racing through the trees on her tail, Kon screaming obscenities the entire time.

After they were gone, Mia voiced her thoughts. "Um, did we ever tell them where to meet us again?"

Swampert looked out at the forest, seeing the smoke even closer. He turned around, heading into a tent to get something important on, passing a few pokemon just talking about the future battle.

He sat down in the hut, hands shaking. Then, as he was getting ready, he heard someone arrive. And in a very entertaining way.

"eeeeeeEEEAAAAAAUUUGH-"

 **CRASH!**

 _ **CRUNCH!**_

And lo, for a familiar armored charmander smashed through the roof of the hut, debris scattering in his wake!

As he lay there, face down, he began screaming obscenities into the dirt.

Swampert laughed a little before pulling the former human off the floor. "So, have fun riding Rita Express?"

Bones audibly cracking, Konstantin hauled himself out out of the mud fish's hand, and through his mask, shot Swampert a glare that would likely incinerate the weaker-willed.

The water type just laughed and rubbed Kon's head. "Now get back out there. I got to get my armor on."

The charmander responded by smashing his armored foot into Swampert's shin. Hard. Then he left the tent.

Swampert just rubbed his shin, grinning.

Baldwin looked around Treasure Town with interest as Rita escorted him via Psychic.

It had just been an offhand mention of his condition and suddenly Rita was levitating him and floating towards a building a touch aways from Treasure Town.

They entered, to the sight of Audino setting several medical supplies and some strangely brittle looking bottles out in the open. Then she turned to look at them, still holding a glass beaker.

"... So, I'm guessing he's friends with Konstantin. Did he cut open his skull by accident?" She asked, sounding tired. "I thought it would be harder for a steel type like him to do that."

"I have an affliction, very infectious and invariable kills those who contract it."

Audino sighed before looking to Rita. "Can you leave? If it's anything like Konstantin, he probably has an aversion to having his face seen."

Rita nodded. "I'll be right outside of you need me." She floated out of the building.

He hesitated, paw on his mask after Rita left.

"Boy, take that mask off." Audino ordered. "I have seen plenty of horrible things in my life."

Baldwin gave a sardonic chuckle. "I am 34 years of age."

She bonked him lightly on the head with the empty glass beaker. "I'm a year older, therefore you are a boy to me."

He didn't rub his head but did finally relent, letting the intoxicating air hit his face.

Audino recoiled slightly before the beaker shattered in her grip. "You… whatever doctors you went to before are complete and utter _imbeciles!_ " She roared, turning away from Baldwin to go grab some of the liquids she had out.

"How in the darkest pits of the Void did they miss Leprosy long enough for it to progress that far?!" She ranted as she started mixing something up, Rita peeking in.

"I mean, from what those scientists said, humans are supposed to be technologically far ahead of us but they can't even spot a simple case of Leprosy and treat it in the early stages like a good fucking doctor!"

Audino shoved the beaker of strange liquid into Baldwin's paw. "Drink that, it should kill part of the Leprosy bacteria strain in your body. I can't give you this all the time, due to the fact that we can't kill all the bacteria in your body or else you would die."

"Well, there is some things I should explain about my world." Baldwin spoke up after drinking from the beaker.

Luke felt sore all over but approached the still seething Konstantin. "Kon. I'm sorry about almost dying back there."

"You just need to be ready, Luke." He grumbles back. "I will have to train you."

"Um, right now?" Luke glances at the dark sky, worried over the smoke that was ever closer.

"Later, of course." Konstantin says, hefting his blunderbuss. "Now, I must go rally the Militia."

"Well, not all of them will be here according to mom." Luke muttered, shuddering at the empty feeling of Treasure Town.

"I know, Luke. But those who stay here to defend Treasure Town will need a leader to keep them from panicking and running if things go badly."

He began walking off, with that.

"I intend to be that leader."

Luke looked at his paws, briefly thinking if he was even a good leader.

Any thoughts were cut off by sound of a cannon ball smashing into a building.

 **A/N**

Whelp, this took way too long to make. I mean, I deleted half of it because there was way too much exposition.

Also, Baldwin joins the party!

Zara?

Zaravan : Now it is up to Konstantin's Militia and Rita's friends and allies to save Treasure Town. With staunch determination, victory is plausible, certainly.


	17. Chapter 2-7

**Battle for Treasure Town**

Swampert walked out with a grim look. "Looks like we're out of time."

Smoke, embers, and ashes blew, and the sky was turned a hateful red, as VVulf's Brigands charged from the treeline, guns and blades up and ready to rend and tear flesh. These Pokemon's eyes were blackened with malice and hate, and they would give no quarter once they came upon their quarry.

From behind the barricades, the Militia Konstantin had rallied were steadfast, as the armored charmander had given a zealous speech, eliciting a hopeful cry from their ranks.

"Steady!" He bellowed, as he and his Militia aimed their weapons and readied attacks.

The Brigands, pokemon of all shapes and sizes, united by the blood-lust and cruelty the Brigade shared, charged forth in a disorganized rabble.

"Wait 'till they get close!" He ordered, seeing some of the younger members shake.

He could see unending hate in their eyes now.

"Fire!" He bellowed, and as one the Militia opened fire with pistols, blunderbusses, and a variety of devastating moves!

Screams from the bandits echoed across the new battlefield.

"Swampert!" Konstantin calls out to the large water type. "Find and take out the War Machine, or the Brigands with smash us down from range!"

"Got it, little lizard!" And Swampert was off in the trees.

"Good luck." Konstantin mutters under his breath, turning to draw a pistol and placing a hole in a charging Brigand Butcherer.

Meanwhile, Luke had frozen up. He knew what to do but… there just was just so much going on. If he shot, he could hurt someone on his side. If he didn't shoot, someone on his side might die.

Unfortunately, it didn't seem like fate would allow the pikachu to remain indecisive, for a Butcherer was already attempting to clamber over the barricade closest to him, the vicious, armor-clad squirtle growling as he attempted to vault over the obstacle while in an inhuman body and grasping two over-sized knives.

"Gyah!" He reacted on instinct, shocking the bandit.

" _Ahhaaagaggaagag!_ " Was the poor Brigand's reply as he fell to the ground, convulsing and burnt to a crisp. The attack had rendered the foe unconscious, it seemed.

Luke backed away, shaking. "Oh gods." He gripped the gun his had been given earlier tighter.

"Luke!" Konstantin shouts to his partner from his position, causing the pikachu to look over. "We have to take out VVulf! Take him out and we break the back of the Brigand attack! Where's Rita!?"

"Um um um, I think she took your friend to Audino!" Luke responded, yelping when the squirtle moaned, hitting him on the head with a quick 'thwack'!

"Well, what are you waiting for!? GO GET HER!" The charmander bursts out, waving his arms.

"I-"

"No need!" Rita suddenly shot by in the air before releasing a large lightning bolt into the crowd of brigands. "I was already on my way over~!"

With a whole wave of Brigands reduced to unconscious, smoking crisps, there came a moment of reprieve in the air.

"Great." Konstantin says up to her. "But they'll keep on coming until we take out VVulf. We just have to find the bastard first."

 _ **Boom! Boom! Boom!**_

He perked up at that.

"There!" He says, pointing to another part of town. "He loves tossing bombs, and he always leads from the front!"

"Well, Swampert should be charging to the back to go destroy the cannon by now…" Rita mused, picking up Luke and Kon with a psychic.

" _ **AHHAHAHAHAAAAAAA!**_ " Swampert's laugh echoed through the battlefield, along with another.

"Ah, sounds like Chesnaught arrived on time. Shouldn't have to worry about the cannon doing any more collateral damage." Rita chirped, creating a few shields with her power to block random shots.

"Good, good." Konstantin mutters, before a massive blast of fire and sound carves a swath of destruction in the forest, the Brigand's Cannon being the obvious culprit. A number of trees are felled or torn to splinters in the process.

And then it was stopped right before it could get close to Treasure Town. " **HAH! MY ARMOR IS INVINCIBLE!** " The mystery voice yelled in joy.

Luke groaned slightly. "He's never going to be quiet about that when I see him again."

"Impressive." The armored lizard seems to admit. "Now, let's take care of VVulf."

"Okay!" Rita took off for the smaller explosions.

A sick bellow of laughter came forth as they got ever closer. None of the other Pokemon fighting the massive Brigand leader could get close, for he tossed bombs with wild abandon, and smashed the overconfident aside with sheer strength and his massive Tower Shield.

With another toss of an explosive a Mightyena was sent flying, and he backhanded a Gardevoir hard enough she flew into the ruined front of a shop.

He was accompanied by his own Praetorian Guard, grey colored Brigands, their leathers adorned with furs and highly armored. They were a force to be reckoned with on their own.

Luke froze up at the site of the various former humans wearing pokemon fur, subconsciously gripping his stomach.

"Well, best to get his attention." Rita whispered. "With an 'electrifying' entrance~!"

She held up a sparking paw before bringing it down, along with an absolutely huge Thunder!

A number of VVulf's guard went down twitching and smoking, save those immune to electric entirely. Even those who were resistant to it were put down by the sheer power behind her attack.

With most of his personal guard down, the tide turned against them, and it was all who was left could do to hold back the resurgent Pokemon.

Now VVulf was exposed, ripe for a confrontation with his flunkies out of the way.

The leader himself looked up at them, and gave a rigid grin.

"Now, get down from there! Hahaha!" He mocked, before tossing a sizzling bomb straight at the trio.

"Protect~!" A psychic shield popped up around the trio, bouncing the bomb back at VVulf, though Rita did get lower to the ground. "Sir, I am thinking that you are over your head here~!" Rita said cheekily.

"Mom! We can't really damage him!" Luke whispered, not really wanting to get close to the other ground types.

"Then it seems I'll have to handle him!" Konstantin snaps at him, his own nerves frayed.

Turning to the Brigand leader, he wastes no time blasting him in the side.

Slightly stumbling, Vvulf growls, and he lets out a booming, ear splitting howl that inspires terror in the hearts of all but the most fearless of fools.

Konstantin shudders, and reels back, trying to get behind Rita as he raises an arm, as if to block an attack.

"Really? That the best you can do?" Rita joked at VVulf, a smile on her face. "I've heard more terrifying from the weird bug things on the islands~!"

"Wh- Bug things?" The armored charmander asks, somewhat confused and frustrated as a headache comes unbidden. "What did they look l-"

" **Get Them!** " VVulf bellows, and in response, two Raiders, dressed head to toe in armor smash their way into the battlefield from out of sight through debris.

They're extremely difficult to tell what Type they belong to, as they are so heavily clad head to toe in armor.

Their short swords, slick with blood, are quite intimidating, however.

Luke recoiled slightly before sending a bolt of electricity at both of them.

One of the Raiders collapses, convulsing, though the other only shivers, before charging at Luke, chopping at the air wildly.

He started backing up rapidly, fumbling with the gun before… a large tree branch smacked into the raider from behind, encased in the glow of a psychic.

"Honey, don't mess with my son." Rita said with sweet malice, before turning to some more Raiders crawling out of the wood-works.

As the other is knocked out cold, Konstantin would be busy trading volleys with VVulf.

The, the massive Brigand leader lets out another howl, and the Charmander freezes on the spot, shivering and dropping his blunderbuss, and grasping at his hood with both paws.

…

 _His Resolve is being Tested…_

"Kon! What's wrong?!" Luke started to run over.

The charmander scratches wildly at his hood, and tears both it and his mask off, and he lets out a wild, unrestrained howl. One of a broken being.

 **ABUSIVE.**

He whirls to face Luke, and his eyes are _burning_ with seething hate.

"Incompetent fool! I could have done this alone, I _should_ have! Why did I bother to bring you along!?"

Luke was already moving, words falling out of his mouth. "Because!" Luke slipped around Konstantin, cape moving quickly to block VVulf's shield bash of opportunity. "No one can do this alone!"

Luke sqeaked as the shield slammed into him, part of the force being muffled by the cape's properties… but he was still a light weight pokemon, getting sent right into Kon.

Luke's altruistic display didn't seem to help, if anything, the charmander was practically apoplectic with sheer rage. Flecks of white foam dribbled out of the corner of his mouth, and his pupils were but pinpricks.

Rearing back, he backhanded Luke hard enough to send him flying to the side.

"Tread on my heels again and I'll run you through! Get in my way and you can _die_ , simple as that!"

Luke rubbed his cheek, wondering briefly exactly what was going on with Kon. He had been violent before, but nothing like this. "Kon?"

"Useless! Useless!" The wild-eyed charmander growls, slicing VVulf's side open with his knife, the Brigand retaliating by tossing another bomb, which violently detonates and sends him flying back.

Rita glanced to the side at their battle before grimacing as her latest Protect broke. She tossed out a small platform of psychic energy before focusing back to the big guy in front of her.

Luke took out his gun when he saw Kon fly back, finally using the gun to shoot at the giant former human. "Leave Kon alone!"

With a boom, the round smashes into VVulf's shoulder, eliciting a groan of pain from the massive former human.

Glaring at Luke, he attempts to smash Luke flat with his Tower Shield!

The pikachu started to back up, but found he had no need, as Baldwin shot down from the sky, slamming a foot into the Rhyperior's head, stunning him before hopping off to Luke's side.

"Are you unharmed?" The leprous lucario asked.

"Mostly. But Kon's gotten really…" Luke tried to find the words as Baldwin glanced to the charmander. "Abusive."

"Hm. It is temporary." Was all the former human replied with before hefting his broken sword for battle. "VVulf, you have already lost."

"Ah, of _course_ you'd show up!" The Brigand leader responds, chortling. "But you're alone, your only help is a coward and a madman, and this town is already burning!"

He gives a cruel leer Baldwin's way.

"But I won't deny you another rematch. Heheh!"

Baldwin just shook his head. "Your eyesight is poor as always. I see no cowards here." Then he took a fighting stance. "And this is not a rematch. This is simply a fight with one outcome."

And with the sound of crushing metal in the distance, Baldwin rocketed towards VVulf, already swinging the broken blade with one paw. The blade, infused with strength born of a surgical focus, rends a tear in VVulf's shield, and the Brigand reels back, dazed!

"You've-heh-gotten faster, haven't you? Hahaha!" He taunts, throwing a bomb right in Baldwin's face!

Baldwin hissed in pain as he jumped back, making sure his mask was still affixed with one paw. "Not just faster. More prepared."

Scowling, VVulf's expression slowly morphed to one of agony as he began to howl, reaching with one hand at his back as it sizzled, eating at his hide!

"Luke!" Luke jumped when Baldwin regarded him. "Use your electric attacks. It will effect him now!"

"Ah!" Luke started running on all fours towards VVulf, covering himself in electricity. "Hyaaaaaaaaah!"

He jumped, slamming into the former human, the electricity causing an explosion.

Luke bounced away, singed and dizzy, but alive. "Someone see where that wailmer came from?"

Baldwin shook his head but stayed alert. The status of VVulf was not confirmed, there were still brigands about, and the cannon may or may not have been destroyed.

Foot-stomps shake the ground, and VVulf charges out of the smoke, sizzling and obviously in pain, roaring deafeningly and attempting to trample Luke!

"GET AWAY FROM MY GODSON!" And Swampert just slams into VVulf from the side, pushing on and on. All the fighting just seemed to stop in confusion and awe at the sight of the muscular water type pokemon pushing the Bandit leader towards the ocean cliffs. "Hey buddy? Ready for a swim?"

Grinding his teeth, the cruel Brigand leader digs in his feet, however futile it may be, and shoves back with all his might, unwilling to go down easy.

With a surge of power, Swampert overtook the Rhyperior's attempts to stop. "IT'S BATH TIME!" Swampert roared with laughter as he pushed VVulf off the cliff, following shortly afterwards.

Then the two slammed into the water, the water type pokemon being much more adept to the water. Then, the armlet on his left arm started glowing. "Witness the power of friendship!"

A shell of power engulfed Swampert before he broke out, his body much bigger now. And he smiled.

Baldwin carefully picked up Konstantin. Many of the brigands were fleeing or trying to. Some of them were getting cut off by Chesnaught and knocked out.

"Gah! Let me go you fucking sickly Leper! Why don't you go _stop fucking missing all the time!_ " The charmander spits, thrashing about.

"Are you sure he's going to be okay?" Luke asked, rubbing his head.

"As positive as the sea is deep." Baldwin replied, ignoring the abusive things Kon was spewing. "It has happened to me many times before. All he needs is to de-stress."

"Ah…" Luke was quiet before Rita handed him some berries.

"Swampert should come back when he's done having fun with VVulf." Rita spoke happily, a few brigands in her psychic grip. "Until then, we gotta tie up the brigands we caught and bury the ones who died."

"Oh, go stack some Accuracy Trinkets, you... you... _Double Leper_!" Konstantin screams.

"Truly, your words are as sharp as daggers." Baldwin snarked, keeping the charmander under one arm.

"Luke, baby." Rita squished Luke's cheeks. "You should go deeper in town with Baldwin and see what the damage is to the town, make a list of what we need to rebuild."

"Y-yes ma'am!" Luke started walking with Baldwin, looking at the various damaged buildings. Whenever he saw a dead body, he averted his eyes, feeling sick.

Baldwin had seen the dead before. It was normal for him. Before he had become king, fighting for that cursed Hamlet, delving into that _dungeon_. But this felt different.

This was an innocent village. There was no madmad who had cursed it. There was no unspeakable horror living beneath it. There was no Crimson Curse barely being held back.

They didn't seem to even have the concept of war.

It didn't deserve this.

The charmander was still deep in his own mental hole of madness, spitting curses with aplomb as he writhed in Baldwin's grip.

* * *

After a few minutes, Swampert walked into town, dragging a sad sack behind him.

Half conscious, beaten nearly lame, and wrapped in chains; the soaked, dented figure of VVulf is deposited, well, more thrown down actually, in the center of town, to the cheers of everyone, seeing Swampert victorious over the criminal.

"Be careful. He's not completely unconscious." Swampert warned, as Magnezone and several magneton approached to take the leader away.

Luke approached with Baldwin, a psychic type pokemon having put Kon to sleep.

A wet, sickly laugh came from VVulf as he dragged his head to look at the three, spotting Konstantin.

"Well, if it isn't the _Traitor_." He chortles. "No wonder he was fighting with you lot, considering how he ran away after we sacked Goldenvale. I thought he was having fun, considering the last I saw of him was him holding a blood covered locket, standing over that dead wench, heh!"

Luke's blood went cold at what he said, before stepping forward. "Shut up! You don't really know Kon!"

"How long has he been around here, huh?" The Rhyperior asks, staring Luke down. "A few weeks, tops? Hah! He's been running with the Brigade for _years_! Well, he _used to_ , at least. Not much use for cowards, we have."

"And he's probably learned a lot more here than with you!"

"You sure about that? He sure learned a lot under me." VVulf said, his grin getting wider. "He was one of my best marksmen, it almost made me proud, really. He could shoot the head off of a fleeing peasant at two hundred yards, hah!"

"Really, we must thank you for that. Made stopping your bandits easier." Rita spoke up, while Luke was shaking with rage. "So, yeah, thanks for that, Mister Wolfy~!"

"Jus' remember." VVulf says, as the magneton moved to take him in.

"Once a Brigand, _always a Brigand._ Give him my regards, will 'yeh? Hah! Hahaha!"

"We won't!" Luke snapped, shouting at the former human. "Because you're just a monster!"

"Kon's not the best person, he's rude, rough, and really obsessive, but he's a hero and he's worth a million of you and your bandits!"

"Maybe. Maybe." The massive bandit leader laughs, and the magneton dragged him away, still laughing.

Luke fumed but turned on VVulf to check on Kon some more.

The charmander stirred a bit and let out a few grumbles, but did not wake.

...

It was probably for the best, considering that they'd need to calm him down.

Darkrai was livid. The laughing human in his head was not helping.

"I'm going to kill VVulf. I'm going to force feed him the worst poisons I can think of and make him suffer!"

"No need." The Ancestor lectures condescendingly, breaking off his sardonic laughter. "Let him live to stew in his failures, he will learn from them. We would very well have use for him later."

" _Fffff_ **fine**." Darkrai turned away from the cheering crowd of pokemon. "We'll just have to kill those meddlers on their little _trip._ "

* * *

A/N: Sorry for the delay. Several things delayed this chapter. Arc 2 end!

Next arc! Fogbound Lake!  
Also, Darkrai just turned into a petulant child at the end and decided to shift targets.

Zara, your thoughts?

Zara: I am glad to finally see this finished. I genuinely enjoy working with Kris on this.


	18. Interlude 4

**Pokemon in the Hamlet?**

The Heir just stared outside his window at the colorful shapes in his Hamlet.

'Why? How?' He thought to himself, feeling like sobbing. 'Did the Ancestor do this? I bet he did this.'

"Hey, Mr. Heir!" Hoopa floated in, twirling one of his rings. "Did you want to try being a Pokemon for a day?"

Well, there was his answer for why this was going on.

"Why." He asks rhetorically. "Why would you do this."

It's... Not really a question.

"Because." And Hoopa was answering anyways. "I am boooored! And sick of brown!"

"Well, it's not _my_ fault the weald is full of blight spreading witches, the crops are dying, and the very dirt beneath our feet cannot support anything but weeds and hardly even that!" The Heir bursts out, exasperated.

"Well, that's another thing being a pokemon can help with." Hoopa floated over to the desk. "Plus, those bandit guys are kinda scarce now-a-days so we gotta be happy and relax!"

Hoopa may have been older than any human alive, but he had the maturity of a child.

"Something I am thankful for." The Heir mutters. "But there is still no end to the Fishmen, or the Swinefolk, or..."

He trails off as fear takes hold of him, and he casts his gaze up to the Manor, and the miasma of sheer _Horror_ it radiated.

"Well, being a pokemon can help with that~" Hoopa pointed out, pulling a pot out. "As we can harness the elements themselves! I mean, Ms. Boudica really likes being a Luxray and zapping the fish people."

"You march right up into the Darkest Dungeon and come back and tell me just being a Pokemon makes it easier." He hisses, misinterpreting the wish-granter's statement and taking offence as a result.

"I wasn't talking about going in there, I was talking about bringing life back to the land so food can be grown." Hoopa pointed out, putting stuff in the pot. "Like, if some human turns into a good grass type, we can get some stuff growing!"

"Please stop stealing the Trinkets before I get upset." He lectures. "And that whiskey isn't yours either _please put it down_."

"I'm not using either of those for the spell!" Hoopa complained, having hidden a bottle of ink behind his back.

The Heir just glares at them.

"Hoopa." He says, tone warning.

Hoopa stared back for a few seconds before placing the ink bottle down. "So, do you wanna become a pokemon?"

Taking the deep breath, The Heir lets out a long sigh.

"I explicitly refuse."

"Fineeee~" He popped the pot into a hoop. "I'll just go ask the rest of your Adventurers!" And he started floating out.

"Yeah, sure." The Heir grumbles, turning to look out the window again.

"Well, at least this is different than usual."

After a minute of watching children turned into brightly colored animals roughhousing(though the one who looked like a brown fox was winning), there was a knock at the door.

"Come in." The Heir sighs.

As he said this, a little shadow like creature floated in, holding Abdul's signature skull and candle.

He'd recognize that skull anywhere.

"...Abdul?" The Heir says. "So you've taken Hoopa's offer as well?"

"I was the first, out of mere curiosity on what being a pokemon would be like." The Occultist gave a hearty chuckle. "It was my surprise to learn that there are Ghosts in their world too."

"Hm. Must be quite fascinating, I suppose." He admits. "Did you wish to share anything of this you have found out from watching this?"

"It very much is, Lord Darkest." Abdul floated closer. "Even as a creature not in the realm of the living, the only changes I can actively feel is the phantom feeling of my missing legs and an ever present chill."

He looked the Heir dead in the eyes. "And, I have had a strange dream in this form. Of a great blue and black deer with horns adorned with the colors of a rainbow."

"Oh, don't tell me there's another Dark God running around." The Heir moans, putting his head in his hands.

"We already have the Farmstead to deal with, oh Light!"

"I do not believe so, Lord Darkest. It gave no indication that it was of the same nature." Abdul shook his head. "I do believe, that it is from the same world as our guest, Hoopa."

"...So their world and ours are becoming closer." He grumbles, before going quiet for a moment. "I blame the Ancestor."

"The Deer Pokemon is of the same mind." Abdul carefully sat down on the Heir's desk, careful not to disturb anything. "It also seemed to lament that it could not do more to help Hoopa or us."

Sighing, The Heir slowly sits down at his desk.

"At least we may take comfort in that the Light is not the only kind deity willing to offer it's aid."

"It may have already sent aid, from what I can gleam, but I do not know what it could mean." Abdul shook his head. "We may just have to keep an eye out for whatever this aid may be.

"We should be on the lookout, then." He agrees. "Hopefully it will be quite useful."

It was then that there was a frantic knocking at the door. "Lord Darkest! Come quickly! It-it's-By the Light, It's a miracle!"

Abdul looked toward the door. "Well, that is quite convenient."

Nodding, the Heir stands and quickly moves to investigate this 'miracle'.

* * *

"I would say this counts as a miracle." Abdul commented, looking on with wide eyes as the farmers nearby just wept tears of joy.

The crops weren't dying.

They were growing, albeit at a slow but noticeable rate.

"Well, you know what this means." The Heir says wryly.

" **Free provisions!** " He booms.

There were similar cheers from the nearby Adventurers, both human and temporarily pokemon.

A bit of his stress recovered, The Heir smiles and starts to make his way to his office.

On the way there, he had to stop for a most amusing sight.

" _Heeeeeeeelp_." Hoopa whined, the brown fox pokemon sitting on him proudly while the other children turned pokemon laughed at the psychic-type's predicament.

"It seems you have been bested." The lord of the Darkest Estate snorted, rather amused.

"Brooke cheated, I just know it!" Hoopa whined, wiggling his arms. "There's no way eevees are this strong."

"I didn't cheat, ya pinky! I'm just tha best at fighting!" The young girl turned eevee defended.

"Well," The Heir begins. "It seems you got..."

He leans in closely.

" _Overconfident_."

Hoopa just placed a hand on the Heir's face. "Nooooooooooooooo!"

" _What_ are we always reminded of about overconfidence, children?" He lectures.

" _It's a slow and insidious killer, Mister Darkest!_ " They chorused back while Hoopa just fumed.

"Eeeeexactly!" He says smugly. "Now be sure to teach Hoopa what happens next time they get Overconfident!"

Hoopa just cried as he was taught his lesson while the Heir trotted off to his office, a smile on his face.

* * *

"You meany!" The Heir looked up just in time as Hoopa slammed open the door and started throwing coins at him.

Of course, Hoopa looked like he had gone ten rounds with some children turned pokemon, covered in dirt and growing bruises.

"Why did you just abandon me!? I was tortured for hours!" He screamed between tears.

"Hoopa, you were _not_ 'tortured'. They were just roughhousing."

"They used their Dark-type moves! It was torture!" Hoopa's arms seemed to go deeper in one of the hoops before he threw something rather unexpected.

A large purple rat wearing a red bandanna around it's neck landing on the Heir's chest.

Hoopa, the Heir, and the rat were in a deadlock of silence and shock before it was broken.

By the rat.

" ** _AHHHHHHH! WHAT THE HECK?! WHERE AM I?! WHAT IS THIS PLACE?! WHAT ARE YOU?!_** " The rat screamed, backing away from the Heir before falling off the desk with a squeak.

"Wah?" Hoopa looked at his hoops, looking exhausted. "How did I jusss _ssst_ -" And Hoopa hit the ground, asleep.

Totally, utterly bewildered, The Heir says the first thing that comes to his mind.

"Welcome to the Darkest Estate." He blurts out.

* * *

 **A/N:** Well, this was a fun interlude to work on. Surprise Ratatta buddy included.

His name is Steve.

And yes, the spell is based on the spell that turned Ash into Ashachu.

Abdul is a Yamask. Just fit to me.

Zara?

Zara: Free provisions are OP. Red Hook plz nerf big deer

Kris: Technically, it would be Deer God.


	19. Chapter 3-1

**3.1**

 **A Day with Strangers**

"Helllllllo Mr Bandit!" Rita announced as she entered the human turned krokorok's cell, looking pleased. "How are you today!?"

"Oh, what is it _now_?" He groans. "Come to gloat? I'm not stupid. I heard how everything went down outside a few days ago. The walls aren't _that_ thick."

"Nope." She tossed something to him. A Rescue Team badge. "I came to thank you for the information you gave to Wigglytuff and give you an offer of a reduced sentence and some limited freedom~"

"Well, since the Brigade's scattered. I'm out of a job." He grumbles. "What's the salary? I can't eat goodwill and happy thoughts." He snarks.

"You'll get a monthly stipend of two thousand coins to spend on food or whatever you want." Rita explained, looking happy. "And you will be working with a Rescue Team near the Northern Isles in keeping the corrupted there contained."

"If after three years, you want to stay with the Rescue Team, you may but you may also go on your own way as well."

He huffed in return.

"Not like I have a choice. Right then. I accept." He grumbles.

"Well, you could stay in jail for ten years though I doubt you'd like that." Rita floated over and offered a paw.

With a huff, the Krokorok grasps her paw in a firm shake.

"Once the Brigade takes a contract, we don't break it. I'm no exception."

"Good! Welcome to Rescue Team Excalibur!"

* * *

A shaky ring spread open in the small forest. Right before a small figure in armor fell out of it.

Landing with a grumble, the Butcher was already wishing he had reconsidered taking this mission the Heir had entrusted to him personally.

Still, he refused to back down. Maybe he'd get to _kill_ something along the way.

Standing up, he gathered his knives and short-swords, noting how everything seemed... Bigger. Strange.

"Tiffany!" A loud whisper was heard from nearby. "Get back here! It's probably _Him_!"

"B-but what if it's someone hurt." Another voice, female and demure, along with the bushes rustling.

"What if _He's_ trying to trick us!?"

And then, a little lizard thing wearing a skull flopped out of the bushes with an 'oof', spilling the pack of food on her back.

The Butcher raised his swords for a moment, before lowering them again as he took in their small size and innocent eyes, not unlike the children of the Hamlet.

He would have been more surprised at their strange appearance, had the Heir and others like that Hoopa thing explained all they could before sending him through.

' _Find out what's happening on the other side. Endear yourself to the locals, and do what you can to see if you can put a stop to it on your end. And try to find Baldwin and Konstantin if it's possible. Dead or alive, I just want to know._ ' The Heir had ordered.

Recalling this, he stepped forward and slowly gathered the spilled food, before offering it to the lizard.

"Hello." He grumbled. "You spilled these things."

The little lizard poked her head up before getting up. "Um, thank you." She crossed an arm over her tiny chest to grab her arm. "Um, are you okay?" She asked, slowly picking up food.

"Are you traveling somewhere?" He asks. From their items and packs, it seemed accurate.

"Kinda." The lizard had refilled the bag. "No place really in part-ticular." She stuttered out, sounding a little frightened.

And then there was the sound of a tree branch breaking before a different lizard, this one with… loose pants ran through the bushes. This one was double the size of the skull one and was holding a large branch. "Who the heck are you?! Do you know Ratatosk?! Are you his minion?!"

She was many times more aggressive.

"Runa…" The skull one whined. "He d-didn't try to hurt me."

The pants lizard, Runa, turned her head. "Tiffy! He could be trying to trick you to going with him!"

"What's a Ratasock?" The Butcher questions confusedly.

Runa smacked him on the head with the leafy end of the branch. "Ratatosk! The Scrafty who probably paid you to find us!"

"I'm employed by the Heir of the Darkest Estate." He explains. "I'm trying to find two other people named Baldwin and Konstantin. They got lost after a battle, and my employer wanted me to find them and see if they're alive and safe."

Not the complete truth, but the truth nonetheless.

Runa seemed to relax some at this. Not entirely. "Well, you can come with us to Treasure Town… But if you try something funny with me and my sister-" Runa stepped closer. "-I _will_ kill you and **NO ONE** is going to find the body when I am done with you. Got it?"

The kid had guts, he had to give them that.

"Heh. Sure kid. I won't give trouble." The masked and armored Butcher says, chuckling and not intimidated in the least.

Runa just growled a little before stepping away.

"Well, let's go!" Tiffy cheered, walking ahead. "Treasure Town should be the best place to start a search!"

He nods, and starts following after them.

"Never gave you kids my name, did I?" The Butcher asks them.

"Nnnnnope." Runa popped the 'p'.

"Name's Verrall, kid. Don't wear it out." He says, laughing.

"Kay. My name's Runa and my twin sister's name is Tiffany." The brash lizard responded.

"So, who's this Ratorock guy?" Verrall asks as they walk.

Runa just growled. "He's a messed up jerk who wants us dead." Was her only reply, but she was just giving off an aura of hatred.

"Messed up in the head huh? And he wants kids dead?" The Butcher says slowly. "Ah, don't worry kids. He comes after us, I've killed plenty like him. I'll keep you safe."

Runa just nodded, staying quiet as the three walked.

* * *

Into town, walked a large invisible red and black fox. On his back were two eggs all bundled up. Of course, no one turned to look at the strange site.

He was a zoroark after all. It was easy for him to go invisible.

He took his time, looking around the damaged buildings and all the pokemon coming together to repair it all.

Needless to say, it wouldn't take long at all.

"Well, there's only one thing to do while I'm here." The dark type snickered as he approached the Medical Building at the edge of town. While it had craters around it and some of the windows broken, not much had damaged it.

Inside, the fox pokemon could hear yelling.

"You stay away from me! You didn't even take the Hippocratic Oath, did you!? You call yourself a doctor!? You aren't half as good as one I know! He could shove a man's organs back in his body after he'd been gutted and fix him up just fine, in the middle of a battle! Don't you dare stick me with needles!"

The zoroark chuckled. "Must be Kon."

"BOY, YOU SIT THE HELL BACK DOWN BEFORE I ACTUALLY STICK NEEDLES IN YOU!"

"And that's Audino. Jeez, still got her charm." He went up to the window to peek in.

"I WILL CUT YOU!" The other voice yells back. "YOU WOULDN'T BE THE FIRST DOCTOR I'VE KILLED! AGAGAGAGAHG!"

And Audino was pinning him down. "YOU NEED TO TAKE YOUR MEDICINE BEFORE YOU LEAVE! NOW TAKE IT OR IT'S GOING IN WITH A TUBE!"

The pinned charmander, who was wearing armor, was figuratively foaming at the mouth.

Wait, wait no he was _literally_ foaming at the mouth as he stubbornly resisted every step of the way.

Zoroark carefully climbed in, dropping the illusion. "Hey Audino. Need help?"

Audino started slightly before glaring at him. "No, I just wrestle with patients for fun. But seriously, I don't need help with this _FOUL MOUTHED CHILD!_ "

"Okay then. Do you know where Luke is? His siblings are going to hatch soon."

"You!" The charmander says suddenly, looking up at the zoroark. "You're Luke's father!" He declares in a moment of clarity among his madness.

"WHY ARE YOU WEARING MAKEUP!?"

"It's just fur, kid." Zoroark replied with a snicker, remembering meeting Rita for the first time. It was in line with her reaction too.

"Luke should be back up at Wigglytuff's Guild, getting prepared for tomorrow." Audino responded, quickly using Kon's moment of clarity to strap him down. "Rita should be around soon-ish."

"Ah, good, thanks Audino~ I'll bring the little scamps by after they hatch for their first check up." And Zoroark relaid his illusion, apparently disappearing like he had been made of smoke.

"No! No! Not the straps! I DON'T WANT TO GET CUT OPEN AGAIN!" Konstantin howls deliriously in terror.

And a tube was shoved in. "You ain't under so hush your whining. This is just because you wouldn't drink the potion!"

Zoroark left the building, ignoring Kon's muffled screams as he headed for Wigglytuff's guild.

He just snuck right on in, heading for the bottom floor with a smirk.

Carefully, he peeked into every single room, before coming to the right one, seeing his adorably little son talking with a lucario who… well, he was dressed like he hated the sunlight but seemed to have been stretched as well.

"I-I don't know Baldwin. I just…" Luke rubbed his face. "That future… it just sounds like it's the worst."

"It was like seeing what could happen if our mission at the Hamlet failed." Baldwin confessed. "Like we were just the smallest embers of hope, fighting against a torrent of despair."

"I'm sorry." Luke muttered.

"There is nothing for you to apologize for. You did not cause the terrible future of your world and you did not dictate the rules of Time." Baldwin hesitated for a moment before rubbing the top of Luke's head.

"Still…"

"Hush." The former king shushed him. "The only thing we can do now is prevent the future from happening. Save billions from a threat they did not even know about."

"But you… and Kon…"

"Death claims everyone in the end. What defines you in the end is how you accept it." Baldwin explained before looking up. "This… Ever since the signs of my leprosy appeared, I knew I would die young. So, I named my successor and left my kingdom. I left, ready to die as a warrior or as a sick man."

"Years passed, and I met Heir Darkest and his mission to save his inherited Hamlet and surrounding lands became my own as well. And then… I died, saving an Abom-a man who almost died saving my own. Then, you know the rest of the story."

Baldwin sighed. "Whether I die in battle or die saving one or a million lives, I have still lived a good life. Death is not my enemy. Death is just the end of my journey."

Luke was crying now… and so was Zoroark.

" _Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!_ " He sobbed, grabbing the attention of both pokemon.

"Dad?!" Luke exclaimed.

* * *

A/N : BOOM! NEXT CHAPTER! NEW CHARACTERS! BACKSTORY! CRYING! KON SCREAMING AT SOMEONE! MAKEUP!

ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED?!

Oh, and the Butcher(Based on a Mod Class) is a Pancham.

Zara?

zaravan : Luke's dad is a little emotional, huh?


	20. Chapter 3-2

**3-2**

 **The Hatching**

Baldwin relaxed, having almost punched the dark type in the face. Still, he was rather confused by the fact that *this* was Luke's father. They looked nothing alike.

"You are Luke's father?" Baldwin voiced as the vulpine pokemon entered fully, shedding his illusion.

"In the flesh and fur!" He chirped out with pride as he placed down some dark eggs with some red swirls on them. "He certainly has my looks and illusion ability after all."

" _Daaaaad_! I'm nowhere as good as you!" Luke whined as he hugged the dark type.

Baldwin just stared at the eggs while Zoroark tousled with his son. He had been informed about how pokemon were born but this was just father fascinating to see two eggs in person. Both of them filled with life.

His thoughts briefly strayed to rock types and those who shouldn't be able to have eggs and then quickly cut them off when he saw one of the eggs crack.

"One-" The second egg started to crack and wiggle. "-The eggs are hatching!" Baldwin barked out, catching the attention of the father-son duo.

The two broke apart so they could witness the hatching.

The first cracking egg fell apart, revealing a tiny black and grey fox with a tuft of red hair on it's head. It looked around, blearily before squeaking.

Then the other egg broke apart, the pokemon tumbling out being the same shape but different coloring much to the shock of Zoroark, who simply gasped.

The dark type scooped up the babies, crooning and nuzzling the two newborns. "Welcome to this beautiful world, Audrey, Katherine!"

Luke was just staring with awe. _'They're my little sisters. I'm a big brother now. A big brother.'_

"H-hey." Luke approached his new siblings with trepidation, holding out a paw to them. "I'm… I'm your big brother, Luke." His whispered, pride filling him at the sight of his new siblings and tears in his eyes.

*CHOMP!*

Luke had to hold his breath, his blue furred sister biting down hard on his paw. Followed shortly by a sound like a deflating balloon.

The pikachu practically melted as the zorua snickered, much to the mild concern of Baldwin.

"Ah, just as bite-y as when I first hatched." Zoroark just mimicked the snickering. Then he glanced to Baldwin. "Hey, you wanna hold them?"

The former human was slightly caught off guard by this, unconsciously raising his paws. "No, I couldn't."

"Ah, nothing bad'll happen if you hold them for a few seconds. 'Sides, you're part steel."

And without much warning, the vulpine pokemon gently gave the two small, fragile balls of fur and innocent life unto the Leper's arms, Baldwin found himself frozen in place, unwilling to move.

Was it fear? Concern? He could not truly say, accurately, but as he gazed down at the slumbering infants, he felt something bubbling up in his chest.

It was determination. Something more than the conviction that carried him through the horrors of the Darkest Estate.

Right then and there, he made a solemn vow, that he would keep them safe.

His masked gaze, he tore away from the twins and looked back at Zoroark, he uttered but two words.

Rita floating into Audino's hospital, humming as she approached Konstantin, who was curled up in the corner. "So, how was your medicine?"

"What happened to me?" He moans, head lolling about as sanity seems to return to him. "... Don't tell me I went mad again? I didn't have a heart attack, did I?"

"Well, you did backhand Luke after VVulf roared at you and Luke blocked an attack for you." Rita muttered something about a stupid green serpent before shaking her head. "So yeah, you did go a bit Mad for awhile there."

He groaned, and leaned into the wall, seemingly uncaring of how uncomfortable it seems.

"My apologies, Rita. It's happened to me before, and to others as well, I think. Sometimes, I go above and beyond to the heights of heroism when I reach the balance of sanity."

He sighs, and turns away from her.

"And sometimes I fall into the depths of Madness."

He wraps his arms around himself.

"...I don't think I can go on any missions, for a few days, at least. I still need to fully recover. I apologize, Rita." He says, sounding sincere.

Rita started rubbing his head. "That's fine, honey. Baldwin told us all about it. He can fill in during the trip."

"Hurm. If you run into any enemies on the trip, just let Baldwin stand in front of you. He wears that heavy armor for a reason." He advises.

"Don't worry, he's not the only one going with thick armor." Rita chuckled, before sighing. "Anyways, do you want to take a walk to somewhere where we can talk alone?"

"... Alright, but if you're going to put a knife in my throat for hitting Luke, just know I won't go down easy." He says in a tone that makes it ambiguous if he's serious or not.

"You weren't in your right mind." She pointed out.

With a grunt, he hauls himself to his feet.

"Alright. Let's go."

"Right." Rita turned and cupped her paws. "Audino! I'll be back in a few hours with Konstantin!"

"Whatever! _Sit still, it's just a stitch you big baby!_ "

Rita sweatdropped and walked out with Kon, heading off for Sharpedo Bluff.

As they walked, the charmander took the opportunity to clear his mind with the fresh breeze.

It helped, minutely.

Rita moved over to a bush at the bluff and moved it aside, revealing a set of stairs going down. "Well, let's head on down to the old summer home~!"

"...How long has this been here?" He asks, more to himself than anything as he moves down the stairs, his tail acting like a torch, casting shadows.

And it quickly opened into... The Cliff's 'mouth'. It seemed quite peaceful, actually.

"...Huh. This seems quite nice." He says slowly, looking about.

"Well, we had the stairs carefully installed when we bought the bluff." Rita explained as she entered after him.

"... Bought?"

He shook his head and mumbled something unintelligible.

"... Anyway, what did you wish to speak to me about, Rita?"

"Oh yeah!" And in that moment, it looked like a switch had flipped in her. Her body posture changed in small but noticeable ways.

"Have you ever encountered a meteorite that shed gems and insanity?"

Meteorite?

...

Metro...rite...

Memories come unbidden, of crystals, hollow corpses of farmers echoing with pain...

 _The eye of a screeching infant God as Baldwin cleaved into it, again and again and again and again and again and again-_

 _ **LOST IN TIME AND SPACE**_

...

When he comes to, the armored fire lizard finds himself curled up on the floor, shivering, the feeling of a paw rubbing his back in a soothing way.

"Well, that pretty much answers my question." Rita muttered, still rubbing.

"...The sky... So near, yet so far away..." He mumbles. "Time and Space... Nothing more than dust swirling in the wind..." Shivering, he slowly curls up against Rita, looking far more vulnerable than before...

Rita sighed, hugging the mentally scared charmander like the mother she was. "I guess it's why our three worlds are connected."

"Time and Space... Time and Space..." He just whispers, fully accepting the Raichu's embrace.

"Kon… When you are feeling better, I'll tell you the whole story." Rita whispered, rubbing his back still.

"...Later." He says quietly. "Just- Hold me, _please_."

He sounds so genuinely desperate.

"Yeah."

And the two former humans just sat there in the bluff, the only sounds being the gentle breeze and the crashing of waves below.

It was a nice clearing they stopped in when Runa announced, "Okay, sun setting, time to set up camp!"

"I'll get the t-tent out!" Tiffany pulled off her bags, spilling some food on the ground while Runa walked to the edge, eyeing a large dead tree, clearly dry rotting.

Runa wrapped her stubby arms around part of the tree. "Rrrrrraaaaah!" And she pulled it out with some effort, stumbling as parts fell off.

"Impressive." Verrall chuckles as he sets down the set of firewood, one of three he'd been given.

The Heir, alongside his orders, had loaded him down with all the supplies he could. Food, holy water, torches, antivenom…

Runa dropped the dead tree nearby with a huff, brushing off bits of wood.

As the fire was lit, he began setting up small traps, bells and strings and the like to alert them of any ambushers, if someone tried their luck.

"With my ear to the ground, no one will sneak up on us." He boasts to the two kids.

Tiffany just fidgeted. "Well, what if they can h-hover or fly?"

He put a hand to his chin, and recalled a number of enemies that did not touch the ground, yet we're still warded away by he and his comrade's various methods of creating safe areas for camp.

"It'll work." He asserts after a moment. "And even then, if any get past the traps, they'll have to go through *me* to get to you two."

"Ah-um, thank you, Mr. Verrall!"

Runa just snorted, taking a stick and shoving an apple on it before holding it over the fire.

Verrall may have been raised by Brigands, but he was pretty sure you didn't cook apples.

Shrugging, he sat down and, after eating a few nonspecific units of Generic Rations™, he decided to sharpen his knives a bit, and soon the camp was filled with the sounds of stone scraping against metal, or perhaps the other way round, as he made use of his whetstone.

Runa just munched on the toasted apple while Tiffany was peeling an orange.

Looking up, Verrall caught sight of the strange, orange-colored fruit Tiffany was peeling. He couldn't help but stare, as he wasn't sure what that was.

The cubone pulled apart the large segments, easily eating one of them. Then, she offered a few segments to Verrall.

Gently accepting them, he put aside his knives, pulled up his mask just slightly, and fed the segments into his mouth.

The slices of fruit were juice, and quite sweet tasting. He found he liked them.

"Do you want some more?" Tiffany asked, taking out an unpeeled orange.

He waved the offer away.

"No need." He assures. "I am yet filled, go ahead and have the rest."

"Okay." Tiffany continued to eat, the night continuing on in silence before Tiffany headed into the tent to sleep.

With the more kind and innocent of the two off to sleep, Verrall turned his attendance to Runa.

"So." He starts gruffly. "Tell me about the one who's chasing you. Want to be sure I remember his face so I can gut him good."

"Well." Runa stared at the fire. "He's a Marowak, like an older Tiffany but he's got a big scar across his chest and his eyes are red."

"Okay." He says, pretending to know what exactly a Marowak is.

"So, how far ahead of him you think you are? How much time we got?" He asks.

She just shrugged. "Maybe a day or so. He's pretty messed up in the head. Thinks himself a hunter or something."

"Hn, bet he prefers targets that can't actually fight back. Coward." He spits, cursing the two kids' stalker.

"Yeah… He killed our mom when she was tending to our little brother." Runa started shaking, rubbing at her eyes. "When… if I get a chance, I'm going to make him suffer!"

"...And your little brother?" He asks quietly. "What happened to him?"

Runa went still. "Dead…"

Verrall lowered his head in respect.

"I'm sorry." He says after a moment, offering his condolences.

"Yeah…" She stared up at the moon before entering the tent without a word.

Now alone, with the fire still burning bright, the former Brigand decided to stay up and keep watch.

Maybe if the kids' pursuer stumbled upon them, he'd have the chance to gut the bastard.

He was already **seething** with anticipation, a hunger for raw violence filling his gut.

A fair distance away, a scarred marowak watched, a grin never leaving his face as he settled down to watch as well.

It was so much fun for him after all.

A/N: Whelp! Babies! Future story! REFERENCES TO PMD BLUE AND RED! Retcons! A side Story that will enter the Main Story in a fun way! AND ZARA'S BIRTHDAY!

ORANGES!

zaravan ?

Well, it seems two individuals both with a taste for wild violence are soon to clash. A brawl to remember is surely brewing!


	21. SS: Exploring the Past: Part 1

Perception of reality came back in small increments.

The man, clad in battered, scarred armor tried pushing himself to his knees, suppressing a whine of pain as a he realized the reason for his awakening. Something had been poking him in the side, the side that housed a broken rib.

Slowly looking to his side, he sees a girl in rags. Very young.

Since when was he back in the Hamlet?

"Hey, kid." Konstantin coughed, slowly reaching a hand out.

The child flinched before coming closer, grabbing his hand. And of course, he could take in her appearance then.

At least age 6 or 7, a bit too thin, and most surprisingly, scraggly hair as green as a leaf and wide bright blue eyes.

"Hey, hey now. I'm not going to hurt you..." He said, suppressing a pained groan as he got to his feet, holding his injured side and keeping his voice soothing. Well, as soothing as his gruff, harsh tones could be.

"Too thin, too thin." He mutters to himself, taking her appearance in, looking around and realizing how _grey_ and _dead_ everything was.

The girl tilted her head, humming. She looked confused by him now, actually walking around him now and seeming to be comparing him to herself.

Then she grunted, nodding and looking happy… for some reason.

"Hey, Kid. You know where I can find a safe place to rest?" Konstantin asked.

Idly, he wondered if this odd, new place was some strange offshoot of the Comet's reach. But instead of colors that were maddeningly incomprehensible, there was no color. None at all.

He didn't like how _quiet_ everything was.

She just grunted at him, but grabbing his hand again and started leading him… somewhere. Without the color, almost everything bleed together. It was obvious that they were in some sort of forest but it was like none that Konstantin had never seen in all his life.

She froze up and dragged him behind a tree when the sound of in-human cackling was heard. The girl just gave off a quiet but frustrated grunt.

And out from the trees came a short, almost humanoid looking thing, purple with eyes made with crystals. A grin adorned it's face, revealing all the sharp teeth inside.

There were a lot of things to infer right then.

First, that the girl knew to hide from whatever this _thing_ was.

Second, that he was _definitely_ somewhere new, considering he'd never seen anything like it before.

There was a click, as with practiced ease, he drew his Blunderbuss and cocked back the hammer, ignoring his wounds, for now, though a limp was still quite obvious.

The girl hissed, grabbing him and putting a finger to her lips in a shushing motion.

He froze, in return, looking down at her.

For whatever reason, he felt trusting of her, at least for now, and so slowly lowered his gun.

He still kept a hand on his knife, ready to draw, however, should they be spotted.

"Kek." The purple thing looked around and wandered away.

For a few tense moments, the girl kept holding his arm, listening to the sounds of the dead realm.

Then, she started moving again, faster this time.

"Hurm." Konstantin hummed, closely following the girl.

It was all so... Unnatural. What could have done this?

He wondered if he could kill whatever had done this.

It worked with the Sleeper and the Heart of Darkness, after all.

Soon, the girl stopped at a group of stones shaped into a rough pyramid. She held up her hand, a bracelet unnoticed before glowing pink.

This was... Strange. And getting stranger.

Honestly, he was starting to repeat himself.

He hoped he would get answers soon.

Letting a small groan escape his lips, he shifted so he could ease a bit of the pressure on his broken bones.

"Ah!" And then she suddenly dragged him into a weird haze in the air… and they ended up a different location, where there was a slight color to the trees but it was barely noticeable.

Especially compared to the huts with a few strange animals… all of them staring directly at Konstantin.

"...Hi." He stated to them tonelessly, leaning to one side as he tried not to exacerbate his wound.

Well, wouldn't do to not be polite, would it?

And then the mummering began, as the girl started dragging him towards the center of the tiny village, to a larger hut with a blanket hanging in the doorway.

As the child led him, It was with little surprise that he realized he could recognize how intelligent these... Colorful beings were.

After all, he'd seen, and *killed*, much stranger things.

The girl pushed aside the blanket, humming in a loud, excited manner.

The inside of the hut wasn't anything special. No decorations, some pink, glowing crystals, a hole in the back, and hay scattered about on the floor.

And in the middle was a pink, pixie like thing and a little green lizard.

"Treecko!" Said lizard rushed over, pulling the girl away from Konstantin, hands glowing green like he's ready to fight.

"Hello to you too, greenie." Konstantin huffs.

He reaches forward, before flicking the aforementioned green lizard on the snout.

"You're not even in the top fifty of the scariest things I've fought. Quit trying."

He seemed more amused, than anything.

Before the lizard could retaliate, the pink pixie floated forward, making a sound like soft bells. "Bii, celebi."

The girl also whined, apparently agreeing with the pink pixie.

The lizard just huffed but stayed between the girl and Konstantin.

The pixie shook her head before floating right up to the battered human's head and placing a tiny hand on his forehead. _"Sorry about Treecko. He's a bit wound up since_ _ **someone-**_ _"_ The girl made another whining noise. _"-snuck out of the sanctuary."_

He froze. That voice... But where...?

"How are you-?"

 _"_ _Talking to you? It's easy. I'm an ancient psychic pokemon."_ The voice explained, the pixie giggling. _"I am Celebi and I'm pretty sure you have more than a few questions about where you are."_

"I would appreciate answers, yes."

He takes a step forward, then something cracks, and he falls to his knees, coughing as he feels his ribs only get worse.

"Some medicine... Would be... Appreciated as well." He heaves.

 _"Ah, Just lay down. I'll have Mia go fetch Blissey. Just sleep for now."_

He agrees, silently. Thinking he could use the rest.

As such, the former brigand lied down on some hay, laying his weapons to his side, in easy reach.

And with that, he closed his eyes, hearing Treecko and the girl talking with Celebi as his consciousness drifted away.

* * *

AN: Yeah, we're doing a bit of backstory and a little bit of expansion on the dark future stuff. Also, you guys might not know where this tiny village is or how it's being hidden but feel free to speculate.

zaravan

Hooray, another chapter!


	22. Chapter 3-3

**3-3**

 **Past Fights**

"Kon, you okay?" Luke looked up from his pile of hay to the charmander entering the room.

"Luke." Konstantin slowly replied, having finally digested everything Rita had told him. "I now have a lot of respect for your mother."

"Anyway, anything you wish to tell me, Luke?" He asks, moving over to his pile of hay to sit down.

"Well, I'm a big brother now." Luke nonchalantly answered, sitting up.

"...Ah, right. You mentioned that." He hums.

"Anyway, I won't be coming with you on the Guild Expedition. I still need some time to recover. The battle took... too much out of me."

He slumps, looking terribly exhausted, still.

"Kon." Luke reached over and grabbed his hand. "I understand completely."

"Yeah." The former bandit mumbles. "Just don't die, you hear? If you do, I'll kick your ass."

Luke laughed, glancing over at the other occupant of the room, who was soundly sleeping. "Death would have to go through Baldwin first." He joked.

"He is a good person. Selfless, strong. He's sacrificed a lot to take part in our..."

He groans, and puts a paw to his head. Even now, the trauma the Comet had inflicted infinite times still haunted him, even after losing his memories.

"...our Holy Crusade. He'll keep you alive."

Luke gave a small laugh. "I have no doubt about that."

"He deserves better, than the hand he was dealt." The charmander mourns quietly.

He grows quiet, and sighs.

"We should get some rest while we all can. You'll both have quite the adventure come morn, no doubt."

"Yeah. Mom said we'd be gone for maybe a week or two, depending on the weather." Luke curled up on his pile of hay. "Good night Kon."

"Good night, Luke." The fire lizard replies, stripping off his metal armor, leaving it in a neat pile next to him as he settled down to sleep.

Before he drifted off to sleep, he resolved to introduce proper beds to the Pokemon here. He disliked sleeping on the ground, however used he was to it.

\~~~\

 _Blood covered the ground in large puddles, figures lying ominously still in them._

 _Fire was all around, consuming thatch roofed houses as screams echoed among the choking smoke._

 _Luke stared in abject horror at the sheer suffering all around, and so heard something behind him._

 _Turning, the Pikachu beheld an armored figure in a hood, who held in his crimson coated fist a Jade locket dripping with blood, as he loomed over the corpse of a female human._

 _"Oh," the figure spoke as his head slowly turned to face Luke. "What have I done?_ _ **What have I done?"**_

 _Konstantin ripped down his hood, to reveal half mad eyes wildly looking right. At. Him._

 _ **"What have I done!? Light what have I done!?"**_ _He howled,_ as the aether of dreams broke, and Luke launched screaming into wakefulness.

Konstantin was on top of him, holding him down to the ground with what Luke could assume to be a concerned look.

"Calm yourself, young one. It is alright, nothing but a dream." Baldwin assures, his golden mask looking down at him as he gives Luke a few gentle pats. "It is safe, Luke. Don't worry."

"Come on, get up!" Konstantin hisses. His tone is harsh, but his worry is obvious despite them. "What's got you screaming your head off like that?"

"Ah-eh, it-it was just a nightmare." Luke stuttered out, sitting up when Kon let go of him. "Probably j-just… that thing with the heads." He visibly shuddered.

"Well, it's dead. We all made sure of _that._ " The armored lizard assured, hefting up the head in a bag that was *still* freshly dripping blood despite it being days old.

Luke could have asked several important questions about that head, including, 'WHY DO YOU STILL HAVE THAT?' and 'WHY IS IT _STILL_ DRIPPING BLOOD?' but Luke decided it's probably best not to know those answers.

Instead he just gave an unsteady thumbs up. "Y-yeah, I-I'll try to sleep lighter… you know, s-so I don't dream."

It was obvious from Konstantin's own long stare that he didn't believe him, though he looked unwilling to push the issue

"...If you're certain." He hums. "If you have another nightmare, I'll wake you."

"Thanks." Luke laid down, staring at the wall as he processed the nightmare he just had. It wasn't any of his normal nightmare involving his kidnappers. He could have recognized those eyes in his dream anywhere.

It was like nightmare or a memory from Kon's past.

 _'I can't talk to Kon about it. He'd probably get too upset.'_ Luke yawned, thoughts filling his head. _'Maybe Baldwin knows more about Kon's past as a bandit. He's been with Kon a while. They seem to trust each other and have fought together.'_

Luke closed his eyes, decision in his mind as he attempted to sleep through the night.

The subject of his thoughts sat back down on his own bedding, silently watching Luke, intent on making sure he wakes him from any more nightmares…

\~~~\

The next morning started with a flurry of chaos and rushing to get everything closed up, save for the first floor where Diglett and Dugtrio would stay to keep the missions up to date for the teams that had already graduated.

Grumbling, the armored charmander slowly limped out of his room, watching the controlled chaos, even more controlled thanks to Baldwin, Swampert, and Rita.

With a hum, he decided to at least see them all off, and so, moved towards the entrance.

Luke glanced at Kon as he crawled up the ladder, giving a small shudder before grabbing one of the tents for himself and Baldwin. He carefully stuffed it into his bag, briefly rubbing his Relic Fragment.

 _'Just another mystery in a pile of mysteries.'_ The pikachu mused miserably, glancing over at Baldwin as the former human assisted Loudred in getting his items all bagged up. _'At least Balwin will be able to tell me something.'_

\~~~\

As the rest of the Guild finished up packing, Konstantin took a moment to sit down and take in the world around him.

Between the cool breeze, the colorful surroundings, and the warm sun, he could feel a bit of the weight on his mind lifting.

He sighed, leaning back and looking to the clouds.

The clouds drifted by lazily, though there seemed to be some darker clouds in the distance.

It just felt like the perfect lazy day for napping.

Maybe that was a good idea, but first he had to tell the Guild he'd be upset if they all got themselves killed.

Slowly standing up, he stretched and popped his back, waiting patiently for everyone to file out.

And to his luck, Luke was the first one up, followed by Sunflora and Chimecho. "Hey Kon!" The grass type greeted. "Sorry you couldn't come along."

"That's fine." He grunts from behind his mask. "Need a break in order to not go completely insane. Anyway, just wanted to see the Guild off, tell you all something once everyone's together, too."

Luke just laughed nervously, pretty much knowing what Kon was going to say to everyone.

Chimecho was about to say something when more pokemon started coming up, chatting animatedly about the trip and Rita in particular. Eventually, everyone was out and Chatot was passing out group assignments and the routes they were to take to get to Fogbound Lake.

Unsurprisingly, Rita was with Luke and Baldwin while Swampert was with some other younger recruits.

Moving to where everyone would see him, Konstantin dragged over a random crate, and scrambled atop of it.

"Everyone, your attention please." His gruff voice booms. "I wished to address you all before you left."

Everyone looked to Kon, Luke sweatdropping as he mentally predicted what the charmander would say. 'Don't be idiots and don't die or I will find you and kill you again.'

He took a moment to clear his throat before he began.

"I regret not being able to accompany your on this momentous occasion, but please, know that I shall bear the burden of being one of the few to look after the town while you all are away. And know that I will give my all to protect the people here were something to threaten them."

He pauses.

"And please, know that I will not be there to protect Luke. As such, it will fall to you, all of you, to protect him while I cannot do so. Know I place my absolute trust and confidence in your safeguarding of his life."

He looks down at them all, and suddenly, he looks much, _much_ more intimidating.

"And know if you fail in this one and only thing I ask, no, _beg of you,_ _**you will wish you had died in his place.**_ "

He then turns, and hops off of the crate, walking off towards the town.

"That is all."

Luke's facepalm was audible for the silence of the group. "Thanks for singling me out, Kon." He said aloud, a slight amount of sarcasm in his voice. The pikachu was strongly aware of the dangers but he didn't really want anyone throwing their lives away to protect him just because Kon was creepy.

It wasn't helped by Baldwin rubbing his head. "He's just worried about you."

"Yeah but you're going to be with me along with Mo-Rita." He whined out in response, still hiding his relation to his mother for fear of being treated like a celebrity or being looked down on for not being as awesome as her.

"Even with all the defenses in the world, simple error is sometimes the weapon that breaks steel."

Luke glanced over as the other started splitting off and leaving. "Anyways, we should probably get Rita and head on out."

Baldwin simply nodded as they quickly found Rita and headed out.

\~~~\

"That must be Treasure Town!" Runa spoke up, the three able to see the colorful tents in the distance.

"Huh. Expected taller buildings." Verall grumbled, looking it over. "Where's the walls, where's the stone towers?"

Something was close on them, he could feel it. Their charge's psychotic sibling was closing in, and a bunch of tents wasn't going to stop him.

"I-I don't know, but I heard the guild-leader here is really strong." Tiffany spoke up, running ahead of her sister a little. "He's a fairy type but he can hand poison types their butts and kick them down the road!"

"Yeah, and there's all the meat shieldy guild members too." Runa just rolled her eyes with her statement.

"Well, if anything, we can get some help here, unless cowards reside in this place." Verall shrugs, leading them forward.

"No-no way!" Tiffany looked starry-eyed as they walked. "They're all super brave and go to some of the creepiest places to explore and solve mysteries like every single day!"

"Hehe, bet I've seen spookier." The former raider brags, casually juggling his throwing knives.

Tiffany turned to him. "We-well I bet they've been to ten times spookier places!"

Runa shook her head, ignoring Verall and Tiffany's pseudo argument in favor of walking and paying attention to what signs she could see.

Getting to a crosswalk, the three taking a right up some stairs. Some pretty long stairs.

"These are some... Pretty long stairs..." Verall huffs, pointing out the obvious, slightly regretting all of his body armor.

"Bleeeeeeeh!" Runa whined out, trying to help the dark type pokemon get up the stairs faster by pushing, Tiffany pulling at his arms.

He waved the two off, and hauled himself the rest of the way up, unwilling to show weakness and compromise the children's confidence in him.

"Um, is that gate supposed to be closed?" Runa asked, looking at the tent looking entrance to the Explorer's guild.

"Probably not." The masked combatant grumbled, stepping up to it and giving the metal barrier a shake.

"Damn, looks like no one's home."

Then, a voice shouted out from the darkness under the grate the human turned Pancham was standing on, surprising the twins.

 _"Pokemon detected! Pokemon detected!"_

Twitching, Verall looked down at the grate he'd failed to spot somehow.

"Huh, looks like they put sentries down there." He grumbled. "Should have figured..."

 _"It looks like a Pancham but something is off! I'll check him out!"_

There was a small rumbling before Diglett poked his head out of the ground near Verall and the twins. And he almost immediately got nervous upon seeing the former human's armor.

"D- _Daaaaad!_ " His head shot down into the ground, his voice now coming from the grate. " _One of us has to go get Kon! It's a Bandit!_ "

Giving an offended huff, Verall rolled his shoulders, loosening his muscles.

"What a rude welcome. Guess the guild isn't as heroic as we thought."

"W-well, maybe this is just a big misunderstanding?" Tiffany suggested.

"Oddly enough, I don't feel like disagreeing with you." He hums, giving a shrug.

\~~~\

"Aren't they just so sweet?" Zoroark was sitting in the main clearing of Treasure Town, the two baby zorua attempting to transform into various pokemon. It was pretty easy to see the biggest flaws, the illusions mainly being caricatures of pokemon.

"The innocence, and ignorance, of youth. What I'd give to have such a fresh, unburdened mind." Konstantin muses, watching the zoura younglings play.

"Well, there are rumors about Fogbound Lake, mainly about anyone who goes there has all their memories erased, being reduced down to a baby like state." The dark type teased the former human.

"...Hm. Perhaps if my sanity is beyond salvaging. Other than that..." He drifts off.

He turns to Luke's trickster father. "You know, you remind me of a Jester."

"Oh, he must be a pretty handsome human then if I remind you of him~!"

Before Kon could really speak further, Diglett rushed over. "Kon! There's a Bandit at the guild house trying to break in and I think he has two hostages!"

Immediately shooting to his feet, Konstantin drew his blunderbuss.

"Get the children to safety." He says to Luke's father. "I'll take care of this."

Zoroark scooped up the kids with a nod as Kon took off.

…

Verall sighed, moving back over to Tiffany and Runa.

"Well, with such a terrible welcome, I suppose we can salvage this journey and see if this town's market is willing to sell to us-"

A thunderous crack, and something slammed into Verall's mask, sending him tumbling head over heels.

 _"Verall!" "Mister Verall!"_ The twins screamed, rushing to him.

"Away from him, children!" Konstantin shouted from behind them, reloading his blunderbuss as he stomped forward. "This scumbag won't hurt you any longer!"

Verall, trying to get up off of his back, groaned as he placed to a hand to his now scarred and cracked mask. Runa winced while a dark look came to her twin's face.

Tiffany turned on her heel, looking right at Kon.

 _ **"HOW DARE YOU!"**_ Tiffany started marching towards Konstantin, fury radiating off her in an intense orange aura that even Kon and the hiding Diglett could see. "Mister Verall is not a scumbag and he did not hurt us at any point in our journey! Meanwhile, you just come out of nowhere, shooting him in the face without asking a single question! You could have killed an innocent pokemon, you complete jerk!"

"What are you talking about, child?" Konstantin questioned, shaking his head as he tried to move past her. " _That_ is a Brigand. He and his brigade nearly razed the whole town to the ground, many buildings still bear the scars!"

"He is a good pokemon who helped me and my sister at our darkest moment in life!" Tiffany snapped back. "And he was with us for practically the last week!"

Slowly looking up, Verall saw a spark of familiarity in how the fire-tailed lizard was dressed.

"...Konstantin?" He gasped.

"You know me? Personally?" The one he referred to said as he stomped towards him, despite Runa trying to stop him from moving. "And why would you know who I am?"

"Ngh. No love for a fellow traitor to the Brigade?" Verall chuckles ruefully. "The Heir sent me to find you and Baldwin, you know, our employer?"

Konstantin froze on the spot, almost like a statue.

"Wait, you two worked together?!" Runa asked, looking between the two. "Then why didn't he recognize you then?"

"My memories. They were stolen from me." Konstantin explained, holstering his gun.

"The Comet's lingering influence... Helped me retain some, but not all. Much is still lost to me."

Verall slowly hauled himself to his feet, and after a moment, took Kon's hand when he offered one to help him up fully.

"Well, that's certainly a pain." The former raider chuckles. "But I guess my mission's not a total bust, then. Where's Baldwin."

"He's here, but helping the Guild at the moment on an expedition."

"Ah."

"Wait, so the guild is empty!" Runa exclaimed in anger.

"Yes, it is." Konstantin agrees. "Why were you here for them, anyway?"

"The children are being pursued by their murderous sibling. A mad hunter who slaughtered their family." Verall explains bluntly.

"...Oh. That's a problem." The other former brigand says.

"Aye. He's probably not far behind us."

"Fine, we'll just get a ride to another continent and get one of the other guilds to help us!" Runa headed for the stairs, Diglett slowly coming out since it seemed Verall wasn't a bad guy. "Come on, Tiffany!"

"Um." The cubone looked between Verall and Runa before drooping slightly. "O-Okay."

And yet, They were halted, for Verall and Konstantin both planted themselves in the children's way.

"Not so fast, you two." The charmander began. "You're not going anywhere."

"With me and Konstantin together, we can take care of your insane brother once and for all, he'll hurt no one else if we can help it!" The armored Ursine bragged.

"Yeah, but don't you two have to go catch up with that Baldy guy?" Runa asked, with a tilt of her head. "I mean, I'm sure your job is far more important than two pokemon."

Verall shrugged.

"I could use a break, and helping you two with your problems sounds like a good time, hahaha!"

Runa pouted while Tiffany just looked at the ground, slightly ashamed.

"Well, I know a place you all can stay, at least." Konstantin said, before leading them towards the hidden Bluff Rita had shown him.

"It's concealed, and it's rather nice. It's probably the safest place at the moment."

The twins followed, but Tiffany kept glancing back.

\~~~\

A/N: GOOD NEWS! Zara has laptop access again! Next chapter will have the story which will probably take up most of the chapter! AKA the retelling of Pokemon Blueeeeeeeeeee!

zaravan ?

Zaravan: With two stabby bois to protect Runa and Tiffany, surely their psychotic brother doesn't stand a chance?


	23. Chapter 3-4

**3-4**

 **Wistful Recollections**

Luke practically collapsed, having use pretty much all his energy in the Mystery Dungeon they had gone through.

"Well, that's a mountainous Mystery Dungeon right here." Rita floated over, Baldwin walking beside her as they looked at a map. "Will take us right to the lake but it's gonna have lots of ground and rock type that could easily wipe us out if even one of them knows how to whip up a sandstorm."

"I may serve as cover for the rest of you. I am incredibly difficult to move out of formation." Baldwin suggests. "With the right composition and tactics, we may win the day."

"Still, I think it's time to set up for the day since Luke did use a lot of his energy back there." Rita closed the map, quietly levitating the pikachu up to cradle him. "Besides… my story is a touch long…"

"That is alright." The former king said with a nod, drawing out a bundle of firewood, not unlike that used during Expeditions back at the estate. "We can set up camp and rest, then. I made certain to pack more than enough rations for this trip."

"Thanks. I'll start setting up our tents~!" With a wave of a free paw, the tent parts started to float up and arrange themselves.

Baldwin, meanwhile, busied himself with lighting the campfire and taking stock of their supplies, setting aside a portion of the rations to be eaten for this camp.

They had more than enough to eat their fill, tonight.

Luke, blissfully just slept.

 _Luke felt himself knee deep in something absolutely disgusting. As he looked about, he saw nothing but filthy halls and vomit-inducing sights. Piles of bones, carts of rotting human corpses..._

 _ **BANG!**_

 _He jumped at the sudden noise, and turned to see four figures in combat with horrid creatures. They looked like tepig, but ugly, dirty and twisted. Some looked like they had their limbs replaced with painful metal implements, while others were horrifically malformed._

 _Already, one fell as a familiar raider fired his blunderbuss, and began hacking at another with his knife, his apparent comrades fighting at his side._

 _Then, a larger one of the piggish creatures lashed out with a serrated chopping blade, and tore the stomach of a masked human open, with them giving a feminine cry of anguish._

 _Konstantin, turning, let out a cry of despair as the female human bled to death in the filthy muck..._

 _Luke. Food's done._

Luke snapped awake, shuddering, Baldwin's paw on his shoulder.

Though the mask obscured much of Baldwin's features, his concern was obvious.

"Another nightmare, little one?" He asks.

"Y-yeah. I'll be fine." Luke got up. "Thank you."

"If you're certain." He relents. "There's plenty of rations, go ahead and eat your fill, and we can get some rest tonight. You've earned it."

Luke nodded, sitting up as Baldwin stepped away. The pikachu tried to steel his features, approaching the campfire.

Dinner was a quiet affair, Baldwin and Rita mostly just exchanging information about the human world the two come from, what snippets Rita could remember.

"I know for certain that though we are here now, that we originate from different worlds." Baldwin said to Rita as he contemplated his thoughts whilst staring in the reflection of his broken blade.

"There were no Pokemon where I am from, of that I know. There must indeed be many worlds out there."

"Yeah. It's kinda odd to imagine a world without pokemon." Rita chuckled, taking a sip of water. "But, well, anything's possible~!"

Then she gave off a spark. "That reminds me, I need to tell you about my first years here."

"Huh?" Luke looked up. Luke had asked so many times in the past to hear the full story… and she had kept denying him, preferring to only give him snippets.

"Your first years?" Baldwin slowly repeats, as he begins carefully replacing sections of his bandages. He'd laid down a bowl of water with flower petals mixed in, and began painstakingly unwrapping certain parts of his sickly body to clean and replace with clean bandaging. "Of your rise to fame as a Team Leader?"

What could be seen of his skin underneath was... Best left not described.

Luke kindly just looked away.

"Yeah, from day one on this Earth, I was a modest but amnesiac hero who was a brilliant rescuer from the instant I began!"

" _HOW DOES ONE LIGHTNING?! WHY ARE THE PIDGEY ATTACKING US!? HOW ARE WE BEING BEAT UP BY A SUNKERN!?_ ** _AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!_** **"**

" _Rita, we're only in the first room." Mudkip muttered, as he knocked the sunkern away._

 _The pikachu paused… before taking on a strange pose. "I knew that, I was just testing you!"_

"The world was my cloyster and I had a blank page to write with the cloyster juice… So, I went with Mudkip, AKA Swampert now, and we formed Rescue Team Excalibur! The world was in the midst of many disasters and I was the unknowing hero who would save everyone! I had no doubt that I would make a story that would echo for generations!"

 _Rita was just curled up next to Mudkip in bed, unable to sleep. 'I can't believe this. I can't be on a rescue team. I don't even know the first thing about being an actual pikachu.'_

 _She shuddered. 'I'm going to die!'_

"Of course, our first missions as a fledgling rescue team went smoothly… until we got a mission from a Dugtrio to rescue his son, having been kidnapped by a skarmory and left a ransom note! We fought through an army of ground and steel type pokemon to reach the top of Mt. Steel, where things… were off."

" _Ah, over there!" Mupkip pointed across the chasm to a diglett shivering._

" _Hey, don't worry, little guy!" Rita called out, adjusting her goggles. "We'll figure out a way over there! Just don't move!"_

 _The wouldn't get a chance to cross, however, as a birdlike-figure landed in front of them! It was Skarmory! As it glared at them, and let out a terrible screech, it could be seen, something that covered most of it's eye!_

 _These crystals... Just looking at them was unsettling, for they seemed to constantly shift and pulse and drip as if they were alive! The ethereal light the shards embedded in it's face gave off was unnameable! There was literally no name for the unspeakable color it pulsed with!_

" _Gyah!" Mudkip yelped, Rita shuddering herself as she felt her eyes avoiding that … insane eye._

" _Who ͡ar҉e͟ y̛ou̢?̡ You̷ ̸a̧re̕n't Du͞t͜g̶riơ!"͘ Skarmory screeched, it's voice having an odd warble effect to it._

" _W-we're Rescue Team Excalibur! We're here to save Diglett!" Mudkip spoke up, trying to sound brave. Rita was not so brave, having no personal faith in her fighting abilities. She has just been able to make a few sparks coming up and that was it! No huge bolts of lightning like she remembered seeing a pikachu do before._

 _Skarmory gave off a loud, screech like laugh. "T̡h̷os̡e ̴f̕ools͠ h͝a͘ve ́no͞t ͠pai͟d mȩ for̛ ke̢ep͝i͡ńg m̸e ̨u̴p͠ a̢t̨ ͢n͟ìght ͡wįth th͡e ear̴t̀h͟qu̵ak̶e̷s̷ th̕ey ̴mak͢e̛ findi̵n҉g͢ ̧p̀recio͝us͞ ͡m̴e̛t͝al͟s ͟a̛nd gems!̶ T̡h̨ose the͡y ẃąk̛e ̛up҉ d̢o͘i͘n҉g ҉t̵hat̸ ̵des͝er͝ve ͘com͘p̷e̴n̴sátio͠n!́"_

 _Rita gave a double glance at Skarmory's reason for kidnapping Diglett. "That…" Rita carefully palmed a gravelrock. "That is the pettiest and backwards reason I've ever heard for kidnapping someone!"_

 _A distorted screech of rage came from Skarmory. "I͏ ̢will̕ ͏pl̸u͢c̢k͜ ̵y̨o̡uŕ eỳe͏s͡ o͢ut̴ b͢ef̕or͏e tąk̷i̢n̨g͠ t̴hose̸ ͠Dugt͡rio's͝ éy̡es̀ f̴òr hi̛s ĺa͠ck ͠of fa̷įt҉h͡!" Then, Skarmory charged as Rita chucked the gravelrock right at the crystals that-_

"Crystals?" Baldwin interrupts. He suddenly seems tense. "Did they glow, and pulse as if they were alive?"

Luke blinked, noticing the sickly lucario's body language and slight shaking of his paws.

"Yup. Pretty freaky, right?" Rita rubbed the back of her head. "Konstantin almost had a heart attack right there and then when I told him the story."

"He would be right to be worried." Baldwin rasps, looking back at Rita. "What you speak of is the influence, the infection of The Sleeper. One of the most terrible foes any of us fighting at the Estate have ever faced. Time and Space itself fractured and twisted in on itself wherever it's influence was strongest."

He stared off into the distance, looking haunted.

"Again and again, we dived into that Blasted Heath, fighting endless hordes beyond the reach of reality..."

"Well, you don't have to worry about it here at least. It's deader than dead~!" Rita chirped up. "I'll explain how at the end of my story~"

Baldwin just gave a humorless, rueful chuckle in return.

"Yes, deader than dead. Of course you'd think that." The sickly king replies, suddenly unusually cynical, like he was humoring an overly naive child.

"Hush you. Basically, we kinda accidentally killed Skarmory. No one missed him."

 _Rita approached the rough grave she had made for the steel type at the base of Mt. Steel. She set down the bouquet of flowers. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."_

"After that was a minor kerfluffle with a gengar, who was the leader of a rescue team named Meanies. They really did not have good naming sense. It was the beginning of an epic rivalry!"

" _Your face stinks just like your team name." Rita bluntly responded to the Gengar, Ekans, and Medicham stealing Job offers from her mailbox._

 _Rita proceeded to get punched in the face by Gengar._

"After a while and beating up Team Meanies, we eventually got a mission to see if another Rescue Team leader, Shiftry, was still alive at the bottom of Silent Chasm. He had been sent there on a simple mission to rescue a jumpluff and somehow woke up and enraged Zapdos."

"Z-Zapdos!" Luke jumped, having heard of the legendary birds before and how Zapdos' electricity was unparalleled.

"Yeah, we had to go and rescue him and beat up Zapdos, which we did. Of course, before Zapdos left, they said something peculiar when it was brought up that I was human."

" _I see. You are that human." Zapdos spread their wings. "Perhaps this world isn't going to be consumed after all…"_

"But before they said anything else, Rescue Team ACT popped up and Zapdos left pretty quickly after that. But it turns out their leader figured out I was a human already and sent us to someone who would have known why I had turned into a pokemon. Our next destination was the Hill of the Ancients, to meet Xatu."

"Isn't he that weird pokemon that claims to be a renowned locksmith? The one that headbutts boxes?" Luke had to ask.

"No, they're brothers." Rita explained quickly. "Anyways, we took a few days to prepare before we headed for Xatu. We did meet him but… well, he's one of those types that doesn't have a complete view of time. So his answers were vague and caused a heck of a lot of trouble later on."

" _...The calamities and corruption of nature. There have been many in recent times. They occur because the world's balance is upset." Xatu turned to Rita. "And your becoming a Pokémon... They are tied together. Inseparably so."_

" _Wha?" Rita was taken aback._

 _Mudkip gulped. "Are you saying that those crystal things, all the natural disasters, and Tina becoming a pikachu are… related?"_

" _What do I have to do with that stuff!? I'm just a normal human!"_

" _SILENCE!" Xatu turned away. "There are bigger concerns... I am afraid... The world's balance and purity... It must be restored. Or the unthinkable shall befall our world."_

 _Rita was scared to ask. "Do you mean-?"_

" _The destruction of our world in all aspects."_

"Yeah… you might notice the little flaw. There were two ways one could interpret his words. That I was a chosen one, destined to save the world… or in the case of Gengar, his interpretation was that I was the chosen one, destined to destroy the world." Rita huffed. "Anyways…"

"The next day, we found out about a legend about a human who foolishly grabbed a Ninetale's tails. The Ninetales tried to blast the human with thousand year curse but the human's partner, Gardevoir, took the curse for the human. The human ran away before Ninetales could say a word."

"But she had made a prediction. 'That human will one day be reborn as a human and when that happens, the world's balance and purity will be put at risk.'"

"We heard the story for ourselves but Mudkip didn't doubt me for a second."

" _Rita. I'm sure that story isn't about you! I mean, the natural disasters started months before you showed up!" Mudkip nodded. "And you aren't the type of person to abandon anyone!"_

 _Rita scooped up Mudkip in a hug, though a thread of doubt still lingered in Rita's mind._

"That night… I got a little mental visit from Gardevoir, who couldn't say much thanks to that stupid crystal thing. Still, the words that got through made me think that I was the human from the story."

"The next morning, we headed into town to see Gengar riling up the town, declaring that we needed to eliminate the human turned pokemon… before revealing me as a human turned pokemon."

"Thanks to my doubts at the time, I could even vocally or physically defend myself. It was really only thanks to the first pokemon I had ever saved that we got away. He got between me and the crowd, allowing me and Mudkip to run away."

"Team ACT caught up with us later… and told us we had 12 hours to run before bounty hunters and rescue teams would come for our heads."

"That-that's not fair!" Luke stood up. "You did so much good before that! There was no reason to ever-"

"Luke, they were scared and worried!" Rita snapped, stopping Luke's sentence. "The natural disasters were increasing, more pokemon were popping up with the crystals on them, and we were talking about the end of the world. Fear leads to irrationality."

Rita sighed, before continuing. "So, in the middle of the night, Mudkip and I grabbed whatever we could and fled. It was like a week before we got our first big roadblock… in of the form of Mt. Blaze."

Rita chuckled. "Good news was that is was so hot in there that Grass, Ice, and Steel types had to give up. The bad news… well, there was a certain fire type legendary at the top… and Moltres was not letting us by until we defeated him."

Luke gave off a sigh of relief. "Thank the legendaries. I thought it was going to be Ho-oh."

At the quirk of Baldwin's head, Rita quickly explained. "Ho-oh is the legendary pokemon in charge of reincarnation and deciding if someone deserves it. And don't worry, I went and fought Ho-oh after I saved the world!"

"Mom! Why?!" Luke had thoughts of his mom's soul getting tossed into purgatory for fighting Legendaries like Ho-oh.

"Because I was bored."

"Anyways, we beat up Moltres, ran through a place full of blue rocks, a week passed and we had gotten to Frosty Forest. And following the pattern, Articuno popped up this time to fight us… and we almost lost."

Luke looked on in shock, never hearing those words from his mom's mouth.

"Yeah, we were still a pair of hungry kids, feral and crystal infected pokemon were still attacking us when we were moving through the caves and forest, and we were low on energy.

"How exactly did you make it?" Baldwin asked her. "Did you summon up all your courage for one final push to do so?"

"No, an absol helped us but… she was doing it for her own reasons for it." Rita was being very nervous about what it was. "She… was somehow still mostly sane after getting infected with those crystals."

"Still... Sane? How?" The Leper asked Rita.

"Apparently a combination of the species ability to sense danger combined with…"

 _ **"**_ _ **GET THIS SHIT OUT OF ME! I AM IN CONSTANT PAIN!"**_

"... Determination…Yeah, let's go with that."

"So we got past Articuno and Regina the absol officially joined our team. Regina acted as a guide, leading us to an even colder mountain where the ninetales form the legend lived. With barely any energy and strength, Mudkip, Regina, and I almost reached the peak. Almost."

"What stopped you, when you were almost there?" Baldwin asked with a quirk of his head.

"Team ACT caught up with us."

"Did you fight them?" He asks. "With how strong you are, I assumed you gave them quite a thrashing."

"No. I almost died to Alakazam's hands. I mean, I was still a kid, a pikachu, and basically running at 10%." Rita looked down grimly. "I… I told them to let Mudkip and Regina go free if I died because.." She rubbed her arms. "Because I seriously thought I was going to die… It was terrifying."

Rita exhaled, obviously uncomfortable. "If it wasn't for Ninetales… we wouldn't be talking right now and this world…" Rita was tearing up.

"Mom?"

Rita shook her head. "I'm fine."

"That was a very brave thing of you to do." Baldwin softly praises. "Not many would have been so fearless for the sake of their comrades."

Rita just gave a soft grin in Baldwin's direction before she started to continue.

"Ninetales took a heavy blow for me before revealing that I was not the human from the legends and that he was elsewhere in the world."

"Of course, before anyone could really question why I was in the pokemon world, everything started shaking and Ninetales revealed that due to the calamities, Groudon would soon wake up."

Luke perked up.

"And Team ACT refused to let us go since we were all basically… almost dead."

"...Did you ever find out who the other former human was?" Baldwin asked.

"It could have been anyone." Luke muttered.

"Oh, it was totally Gengar." Rita explained, nonchalantly.

Luke stared at his mom. "The-there's no way. You let him baby sit me all the time! He's not some cowardly jerk!"

"Well, he's changed quite a bit. After all, Pokemon can't be evil. It's always an outside source influencing them to do evil things."

"If only that could be true for those not Pokemon..." Baldwin muses.

"Anyone can change." Rita remarked, looking up. "It just takes the right catalyst. One good day can set the most hardened criminal down the path of redemption, just as one bad day can send a good person spiraling downwards."

Baldwin gave a peel of soft laughter at that. "If only I had your optimism, Rita." He praises her. "So, what happened next?"

"Well, Team ACT gave us some food and a used their badges to send us home with Regina. After eating, we walked right back into town and told everyone we were innocent, with everyone else believing us now… and a little help from Pelipper spreading the news of what Ninetales said. Gengar and his goon got chased off for the moment."

"And we basically took a week off to just rest before we got back to work and got help to make our base bigger. Regina was getting checked out and everything was fine… until everyone noticed that Team ACT was not back yet."

"The leaders of some pretty big teams teamed up before we could volunteer to go down to help."

"Two weeks passed and… the team back, defeated. They were unable to even get to Groudon."

Rita puffed up. "Then Gengar popped up, trying to get us to 'accept our fate'. Playing the doomsayer. Of course…"

" _Kekeke!"_

 _Rita charged through the crowd and pushed Gengar down before turning to everyone else. "Why are you guys just accepting what he says? He's a lier and a thief!" She shouted out. "And you know what! Even if the world is doomed, we shouldn't just give up! I didn't when I was on the run due to his lies!"_

 _Several of the pokemon shifted guiltily before Mudkip stepped forward. "Yeah!"_

" _We'll go down and fight Groudon and save Team ACT! Because we're a Rescue Team!" RIta pointed a finger to the sky. "No matter where you are in danger, in the depths of the earth or beyond the sky, we'll be there! Because that's what we do! Never giving up on ourselves or the pokemon we are rescuing!"_

" _Keh, you're an idiot." Gengar spat out as he got up. "It's impossible for a Pikachu like you could ever damage a legendary like Groudon."_

 _Rita spun around and punched Gengar in the face. "And yet, I can do the impossible and punch you no problem with a fighting type move!"_

 _Rita turned back to everyone, the team's determination rebuilding. "Yeah!"_

" _What were we even thinking!?"_

" _Let's do this! Everyone! We can't just let Mudkip's team take all the glory!"_

 _Rita's heart swelled as everyone roared._ 'Now if only I had a cape.'

"Well, after that, everyone started getting ready to Magma Cavern, including my team. That night, I had another dream with Gardevoir, who told me that she'd tell me my reason for being in the pokemon world… after Groudon was defeated."

"The next day, Mudkip, Regina, and I left for Magma Cavern with quite a few other teams. It.. was blazing hot, enough that Mudkip's own water attacks were evaporating quickly. We also met Mudkip's future husband down there. He was on another Rescue Team and was pushing hard to help. It was like love at first sight."

"But of course, my group was the one to get ahead of everyone else."

"And… we found Groudon… and somehow Alakazam had been fighting him this entire time. He was a stubborn old psychic type."

"We got the team out of the way as it became our turn to fight Groudon…"

"It was really hard. Mudkip's water attacks were evaporating before they could hit and his ground type attacks were barely touching him. I didn't want to try punching him too hard and my electric attacks were doing nothing. Regina's attacks couldn't get through his thick skin."

"I don't recall exactly how I beat him…"

" _Regina! Throw me at his head! If he eats me, I can shock him from the inside!" Rita snapped out, sounding slightly delirious from the heat._

 _The absol just stared at Rita. "Are you nuts?!"_

" _Just do it!"_

 _Regina just growled, grabbing Rita by the scruff and starting to spin in place before launching the Pikachu missile at Groudon._

 _Unfortunately for the ill-defined plan, Groudon was roaring upwards at the moment. Fortunately, he had not moved from the wall._

 _So Rita's skull smacked right into Groudon's chin, slamming his head into the wall behind him, knocking out one of his teeth and knocking both pokemon right out._

 _Mudkip and Regina just stared at the impossible thing that had just happened… before coming to a silent agreement that no should ever know about this._

 _They were gonna keep the tooth though._

"Yeah, apparently whatever plan I had made knocked out Groudon and knocked out his tooth so we kept it as a trophy." Luke was disappointed. He really wanted to know what his mom had did.

Rita looked down. "The next day, we found out what was causing the crystal corruption in pokemon and causing all these disasters from Xatu. Konstantin gave me it's name already."

"The Sleeper." The name send familiar shudders through Baldwin's body. "It was planning on crashing into the Earth and corrupt those who survived it's crash."

"Our only hope we could get to quickly was Rayquaza. And that night, I had a terrible nightmare. It was the Sleeper itself trying to corrupt me from within. The worst part is, it might have even worked if not for one road bump."

She gave a cheeky grin. "Gengar had come in that night to try kill me via eating all my dreams. And it stopped the dream with the Sleeper right then and there. Apparently it had a weird enough taste that he stopped trying to kill me and watched my dreams instead… when Gardevoir showed up talking about what kind of partner he was and why she loved him so."

"He ran off crying after that."

"But Gardevoir… she had something else to tell me… After the Sleeper was stopped, I was going to be sent home, to the human world."

"I didn't tell Mudkip the next day, and after talking with Xatu and Alakazam, we received the Teleport Gem that they powered up, with Gengar's help. And we went up up up… to Sky Tower, beyond the wings of normal flying pokemon."

"It was rather easy… but we made it to the top. And Rayquaza…"

"Rayquaza was covered in the Sleeper's Crystals."

"And because the Sleeper was so close, Mudkip and I started getting infected… Those thought… I almost succumbed to madness. But Mudkip's voice…"

" _RITA!" It was like a light piercing the darkness. "Rita! I can't see anything but I know you're still there! Please! Don't give up! Don't give in to these voices or the colors! We need to-"_

" _-save everyone…" Rita muttered out. "Save… Everyone…"_

 _She took a step forward, despite the pain and the shaking of the clouds below her feet._

" _Save..Everyone… I need to…" Sparks started to travel over her body as something just clicked in her body. As she remembered the pained look on Skarmory's face. The crystals started to crack._

" _I need…" Her body started to glow with electricity, her eyes snapping to Rayquaza. Unseen, Mudkip's body was glowing too, the crystals breaking off him._

" _To save.." Rita jumped up, higher and higher as more power than she ever felt before was surging through her body._

" **EVERYONE!"**

 _She let it all out with one scream, a rainbow of electricity blasting Rayquaza, vaporizing the crystals infecting him._

 _Rita collapsed to the ground, looking up at the sky. She could see it, coming closer every second._

 _Rayquaza hissed in pain before looking to Rita and Mudkip. "I AM SORRY…" Then the lord of the skys looked up to the thing that had puppeted him for so long._

" _YOU! YOU HAVE CAUSED SO MUCH PAIN AND DEATH! NOW, FACE HIS JUDGEMENT!"_

 _A shell surrounded Rayquaza before he burst out into a more majestic form. And then, he let loose his most powerful Hyper Beam, engulfing the top of the tower in light._

Rita was quiet, staring up at the stars. "I don't remember how we survived the fall. Only that Gengar was somehow involved. But, the Sleeper's physical form was destroyed and the world was saved. And… it was time for me to go back to the human world."

The alolan raichu was started to cry. "No one wanted me to leave and I didn't want to go back. I didn't care what kind of life I had, I loved this one, with all the insanity, craziness, and kind pokemon. I couldn't just leave Mudkip. I just couldn't."

"And then I met… _HIM_ for the first time."

Baldwin tilted his head. "Who?"

"Arceus. The creator of the pokemon world." Luke just puffed up intensely at this.

"He… was wonderful. He told me I could stay if I wished it hard enough. And I saw Him use His Judgement on the Sleeper. No idea how much His Judgment damaged it. It's form in that between place was… basically ugly and indescribable." Rita gave a shrug. "But he did tell me there was no way for it to come back here so essentially, it's dead here."

"But, before He sent me back, He told me that I would meet Him again in the future… And I did…"

"Oh, when?" Baldwin had to ask.

Rita looked sheepish before she replied.

"It was after Luke had been rescued from his kidnapping… I just… didn't feel strong enough, even after evolving. And so, I climbed a tower here that no one else could reach the top of. Destiny Tower."

"There, I talked to Arceus one more time, where He told me of a future threat like the Sleeper… and He gave me something to give to Luke today."

"WHAT?!" Luke jumped in surprise. Arceus… had actually mentioned him and was gifting him something!

Rita closed her eyes. "It's also the secret to why my attacks have been so strong. For I contain-" There was a bright glow from her chest, blinding Baldwin and Luke for a few seconds. When is died down, Rita was holding a strange golden wheel with a black orb in the middle, a bright light in the orb, like a trapped star. "-The Space Globe."

A/N: _WHELP! THIS WAS A RIDE!_ Had to read an LP of the first game to remember all the big points. I'll have an announcement after Zara says his bit about this… LONG CHAPTER!

zaravan : Sorry to all our loyal readers for taking so long, but hopefully Kris' announcement will make up for it alongside this really big chapter for you all! Take it away, Kris!

Kris: Yup! We decided that for the distant sequel, about 700-1000 years into the future, we will make it a large RP instead of the original plan to make it a CYOA or quest. This way, the future of the world can be expanded more.

The details are rather simple. We're going to make it on Spacebattles, though we have not come up with a name for it yet. Maybe something along the lines of PMDD: Future Madness. But Zara and I will be GMs, along with maybe one or two of our friends who is interested. For those on , just find my username on Spacebattles(KrissKross) and send me a PM if you are interested.

Here's to the future!


End file.
